LONDON, May 2 — Voters go to the polls in Britain on Thursday, in a mid-term test for the Conservative government that could determine beleaguered Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s future.
But his position has looked increasingly fragile, because of damaging claims about lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street and an inflationary surge that is squeezing voters’ incomes. But Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, during which Johnson has shown hawkish support for President Volodymyr Zelensky, took the heat out of any mutiny.A drubbing for Johnson’s Tories on Thursday, though, could revive calls for him to go, to bed in a new leader for the next general election, which is due by 2024.“What’s going to get folks a lot is the cost of living: Food is going up, energy is going up,” said one voter, who gave his name only as Bob, in Dudley, central England.
Polling indicates Labour will win the most seats in England, while the party wants to gain ground on the pro-independence Scottish National Party in Scotland and consolidate its hold on Wales.Apart from Johnson, the long-term future of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland may also be in jeopardy this week.
Deirdre Heenan, professor of social policy at Ulster University, called it “a moment of inflection in Irish politics”.Sinn Fein — the former political wing of the IRA — has a longstanding aim to hold a so-called border poll on continued British sovereignty of Northern Ireland.
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