UK elections 2017: Fall of Theresa May and return of the Left with Jeremy Corbyn
History has a queer way of changing suddenly. In the last century, there was a firebrand Left leader, Tony Benn. He led the Left radical section of Labour which influenced many.
One of his outstanding followers was a young man who had no college education, but learned a lot from his mother, a political activist. Today the whole world knows his name: Jeremy Corbyn, the rising star not only of the Labour party, but also of British politics.
I first met Jeremy at the beginning of this century. He stayed in our home in New Delhi in 2004. He is a strict vegetarian, doesn't drink and moves around in London on his bicycle. But Jeremy is a powerful speaker who was kept among the back-benchers by the Blairite Labour majority.
They couldn't remove him from Parliament because he had already served a number of terms in the House of Commons. He remains in the Left of the ideological spectrum, though he is not a conventional Marxist, but highly respected for his honesty and dedication.
Theresa May underestimated him. She had another three years to go as UK Prime Minister, but the opinion polls giving the Conservatives (Tories) a 20-point lead over Labour seemed sufficient to ensure a substantial victory leading to a larger majority than before.
Jeremy could have stopped the Tories in their tracks by opposing such an early election. He did not, to the consternation of many Labour supporters and even pro-Labour newspapers, like The Guardian, who thought this was a reckless gamble. Why not wait it out when the polls were much more favourable?
No one quite expected the pro-poor and pro-middle class campaign that Labour under Corbyn released. From a rise in the minimum wages, to more funds pumped into education, revitalising the National Health Scheme, renationalising the railways, and other measures, replacing the austerity measures with an economic package geared to the lower and middle strata, was something that May clearly did not realise the electoral potential of.
The Prime Minister seems to have lost her nerve midway. She refused to debate Corbyn, further reducing her credibility among the electorate. May made a serious error when she initially agreed to support for the elderly, to back down later. The citizens dubbed this the "dementia tax".
The Tories won 318 seats, a loss of -12 seats and 8 seats short of a majority, with a vote share of 42.4 per cent. This was a rise of +5.5 per cent. Labour won 261 seats, a large gain of 31 seats, with a vote share of 40 per cent, up by a substantial +9.5 per cent.
The Democratic Unionist Party won 10 seats, which enabled a slender Tory-DUP majority in the House of Commons. With this surge in Labour support, Corbyn's position in the party is impregnable.
There are clear signs of a shift towards a two party system. Also, May (because of her hesitations also called "Maybe"), is on a weak wicket going into the Brexit talks. All in all, a dark day for the Tories.
Expats from India did well as two Sikhs female and male, won for the first time. Overall 12 Indian-origin MPs rose from 10 in 2015 to an all-time high of 12. The seat in Canterbury was lost to the Tories for the first time since 1918. Sinn Fein won 7 seats in Northern Ireland, but will not take its seats in the Commons. The Scottish National Party won a record of 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland.
Where does the UK go from here? Obviously, May now has a weak hand in the Brexit talks. She is unlikely to win significant concessions from the Angela Merkel-led EU, which has pounded Greece with salvoes of harsh austerity policies.
Even the British Prime Minister's idea of a "soft" landing in the Brexit talks is unlikely. It would appear that May must be rueing her decision to go by the polls. She won't be the last one.
The question is how long her government and her leadership will last. But one thing is certain, the 64-year-old Jeremy Corbyn is highly likely to continue to play a major role in British politics. Certainly may, not Maybe!