Less than a week before the elections in Great Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not want to say what he will do if he fails to secure a parliamentary majority. He appeared nervous when asked three times on television whether he would resign if defeated, and he avoided giving a clear answer.
Johnson promised on Sky News to reduce the number of migrants, using a points system modeled after the Australian example. However, experts say that this points system could actually lead to more migrants. Johnson replied that he mainly wants “controlled immigration,” with an emphasis on special professions or skilled workers.
With this, Johnson once again introduces the still fragile and controversial issue of xenophobia and racism among many Britons. Following global al-Qaeda terror attacks in New York, Madrid, and London (July 7, 2005), the wars in Iraq, and the rise of ISIS, there is antipathy among many Britons towards Muslims, Hindus, and people with an Eastern appearance. This has already played a major role in the rise of the (white) UKIP party and the growing support for British white nationalism within One Nation.
During the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016, hardliners and Brexiteers frequently used “the large number of foreigners” as an argument, claiming it was the result of the single European market. The fact that Great Britain is not part of the Schengen Agreement and maintains its own border controls is usually omitted. These anti-migrant sentiments resonate well with the long-standing anti-EU stance held by many Britons for decades.
In the texts of the election programs, this elephant in the room is almost entirely ignored but regularly surfaces in speeches, debates, and accusations. For example, Labour leader Corbyn does not miss a chance to accuse the Tories of an anti-Muslim stance, while Tory leader Johnson continues to label the radical Labour’s anti-Zionism as antisemitism.
In the polls, the Conservatives still clearly lead, but the British constituency system also makes the outcome unpredictable. In many constituencies in central and northern England, the Conservatives and Labour run neck-and-neck. Opposition parties like the Lib Dems and the Scottish Nationalists have called on voters to vote “tactically.”
In most of the more than 650 constituencies, political parties have formed coalitions where parties have withdrawn their own candidate in favor of the most likely candidate of their coalition partner. For instance, the radically anti-European Brexit Party has withdrawn in over half the country in favor of the Conservatives. The Lib Dems, Labour, the SNP, and the Greens have done this in more than a hundred constituencies.