ECONOMYNEXT – The centre-left Labour Party won a massive majority in the 650-seat United Kingdom parliament while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party suffered the worst performance in the party’s long history as voters expressed their frustration over high cost of living crisis, failure in public services, and a series of scandals.
So far Labour has won 412 seats, while the Conservatives have slumped to just 120 and centrist Liberal Democrats have taken 71.
Labour’s Keir Starmer vowed to rebuild the UK as its next prime minister after his party on Friday surged to a landslide victory in a parliamentary election, ending 14 years of often tumultuous Conservative government.
The Great Britain colonized Sri Lanka for 150 years and built most of the island nation’s infrastructure to transport the South Asian island’s products to be exported to the UK before granting independence in 1948.
The UK, which has a considerable amount of Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Tamil diaspora, has been pushing the island nation against its alleged rights abuses at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and demanding to address the past violations under the Conservatives.
Here are some questions (Q) and answers (A) on what the Labour Party’s win mean for Sri Lanka:
Q: Will there be any significant policy changes towards Sri Lanka?
A: No. Analysts say Sri Lanka’s former colonial rulers are highly unlikely to change their foreign policy despite the Labour’s win. They will continue more or less the same policies, though the Labour-led government may prioritize fair trade practices and increased development aid, potentially benefiting Sri Lanka’s economy depending on its improvement in human rights.
Q: Will the new UK government push Sri Lanka aggressively to address the past human rights violations?
A: The Labour-led government would want to push Sri Lanka for accountability on the alleged war crimes and some specific right abuses which have been mentioned in the last UN resolution sponsored by the UK. The UK-based Tamil diaspora is likely to back this. However, given the current context of silence of the world including the UK over human rights violations in Palestine, analysts say it might take some time for the new UK government to push Sri Lanka soon for accountability. The Labour Party is traditionally more vocal on human rights issues.
Q: How about the UK-based Diaspora influence on Sri Lanka?
A: The UK has a strong over 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and two winning Labour candidates are Jaffna born women barristers, foreign media reports say. The Tamil diaspora has significant political influence and there could be stronger advocacy for their concerns under Labour leadership. They have been pushing for accountability in Sri Lanka’s 26-year war which has led successive UK government to lead to seek actions against the island nation in the UNHRC.
Q: How is the Labours relationship with Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe?
A: Wickremesinghe-led centre-right United National Party (UNP) which has only one seat in Sri Lanka’s 225-member parliament has somewhat similar ideology of the Conservatives. When Wickremesinghe visited the UK in 2022 soon after taking the office he said “whether it be Labour or Conservatives or coalition and we want to maintain those relations”. Analysts suggest there will not be major hiccups in the relationship between Wickremesinghe government and a Labour-led UK government. However, they say, Sri Lanka may have to find slightly new equilibrium in the diplomatic relations if there is a drastic changes in the country’s leadership after the presidential election later this year.
Q: Will there be any other benefits for Sri Lanka?
A: Yes. The Labour’s focus on climate change might lead to increased collaboration on environmental initiatives and it will be beneficial for Sri Lanka’s sustainability efforts. The island nation has been looking for new collaboration in on climate change challenges. Sri Lanka has been looking to establish an international University on climate change, Climate Justice Forum, and Tropical Belt Initiative. Analysts say Sri Lanka could get some help for some of these initiatives from the Labour-led UK government. (Colombo/July 05/2024)