Britain’s Chaos Is a Big Red Flag for Europeans

Ever since Keir Starmer became UK prime minister there’s been hope of a reset in relations with the European Union. His Labour government and Brussels have both rued Brexit’s economic and political costs in a more hostile Trumpian world. The prospect of the cautious Starmer being dumped as PM has if anything heightened British expectations that whichever colleague replaces him will hasten the rapprochement. Unfortunately, the country’s leadership crisis may just make things harder.

Viewed from across the Channel, Britain is starting to look politically fragmented to the point of being ungovernable, exhibit one being the disastrous local election results that left Starmer on the precipice. The left-wing Green Party seized ground in Labour’s London strongholds and Nigel Farage, Mr. Brexit himself, led his anti-immigration Reform UK party to first place in England while piling up seats in the Scottish and Welsh assemblies. A new Politico poll found his neophyte party — with a barely formed roster of fiscal wishful thinking — is still viewed as more credible than Labour on the economy and cost of living. It’s seen as a likelier winner of the next general election.