Britain Is Flirting With Five-Party Politics
Reform has upended electoral norms in the UK, but it would be a mistake for Labour and the Conservatives to tack further right.
It’s a party.
Photographer: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images EuropeWhen the dust settles following this week’s tranche of elections in English local government, expect to see confirmation of a seismic shift in UK politics.
For some months now, opinion polls have shown five political parties hovering within 15 points of each other in voter share — quite a new phenomenon in a nation that’s been dominated by the Conservatives and Labour since World War II. While the immediate story is likely to be a much anticipated breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, what will have even more profound consequences is what elections expert John Curtice describes as a “new norm” of five-party politics.