Is Britain entering an era of political consensus?

Jeremy Hunt’s recently released budget highlighted the growing similarities between Britain’s two main parties as Keir Starmer was “left to complain that the Conservatives have stolen Labour’s policies”, a leading commentator has said.

The politics of our country seems to be entering the era of “quiet consensus”. A new statesmanGeorge Eaton. Even as the “rhetoric heats up” ahead of the next general election, “a more mundane reality is emerging: a convergence between the Conservatives and Labour”.

“common language”

“Free flow of politics” between Starmer‘s work and Rishi SunakConservatives “not only exactly tax and expenses“, – wrote Ethan. Both sides also “endeavor to do Brexit to ‘work’ rather than undo or radicalize it’. And “both are in favor of increased defense spending, the preservation of Trident and almost nothing different from the policy of Ukraine.”

Since canals Liz Truss and Jeremy Corbyn as leaders, the two parties also appear to be aligned on mutual support for tougher controls on illegal migration and a more authoritarian stance on crime and civil liberties.

Sunak and Starmer “agree on a great deal,” they wrote BloombergTeresa Raphael in November, after each addressed the business community during Prime Minister’s Questions. “In a way, this represents a new economic consensus in British politics,” Raphael said. “Returning to the Tony Blair era”, Starmer has “placed his party at the political centre”.

This apparent shift to the right was also noted by Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Littlewood said GB news that he “finds it very difficult to work out what the real political differences are between the Labor Party and the Conservative Government”.

“In some quarters you could argue that the Labor Party is actually more pro-market,” he added.

Bloomberg columnist Martin Ivens said that after “six years of boisterous, loud-mouthed politics and extravagant promises of future greatness” it was now “easy to imagine” Sunak and Starmer “sitting down over a pint” and “finding common ground – just like dumb but effective people do German politicians”.

“poison pills”

However, the Tories and Labor are still at odds on some key issues. The £28 billion a year pledged by Labor to tackle the climate crisis “quadruples the government’s pledge” to spend around £7.5 billion on green policies over the lifetime of this parliament, it said. The TimesPolitical reporter Eleni Currea.

Starmer’s plan to replace House of Lords with a smaller, democratically elected upper house, is also unlikely to find much support on the Tory benches.

And while both parties are in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration, Starmer criticized Sunak’s plan to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats Earlier this month, the two leaders clashed in the House of Commons, with the Prime Minister describing the Labor leader as a “left-wing lawyer”.

But such clashes are not necessarily a bad thing, Eaton argued in The New Statesman. “It’s often when the bipartisan consensus is strongest that the biggest mistakes are made,” he wrote, pointing to the Iraq war and the “crash financial deregulation mania.”

Guardian columnist Andy Beckett warned that if Starmer wins the next election, his “acceptance of reckless Tory positions such as on Brexit” could “undermine his government”.

“Ideas inherited from other parties,” Beckett added, “can be poison.”