Alot occurred over the summer. The England football team came painstakingly close to securing a victory in the Euros Football Championship, coming second to Spain. The Olympics took place in Paris, with Team GB placing seventh on the medal table, and Oasis announced their long-awaited comeback.
But it’s not just sports and media that made headlines, the summer of 2024 saw a seismic change in British politics as the general election resulted in a return to power for the Labour Party, following fourteen years of Conservative governments and four election losses. Given opinion polling before the election, which showed the high likelihood of a Labour victory, the election campaign was slightly boring. That doesn’t make the result any less important, though, not only because it resulted in the UK’s first change in government since 2010, but also because of the scale of Labour’s victory.
Labour won 411 seats, giving the government a 174-seat majority, while Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives were reduced to 121 seats, the lowest in the party’s history. Former prime minister Liz Truss lost her seat and in Wales, no Conservative candidates were returned. Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister on 5th July; however, he didn't have the so-called “honeymoon period” enjoyed by most new prime ministers, as riots erupted across the UK in the weeks subsequent following a mass stabbing in Southport.
Far-right and anti-immigration groups perpetrated the violence, spreading false claims that the instigator of the Southport attack was a Muslim and asylum seeker. In response, the Prime Minister said the rioters would “feel the full force of the law”, and following short jail sentences for many rioters, they were quelled. The new government has also been criticised for cutting the winter fuel payment to the majority of the country’s pensioners.
This payment is either £200 or £300 and was given to pensioners on a low-income pension credit; now it will only be made to pensioners on certain benefits. This change was not mentioned in the election campaign which has infuriated many voters, some of whom voted Labour for the first time. However, the Prime Minister believes the change is necessary as it is expected to save the government £1.4 billion.
But the UK isn’t the only country in which politics has seen a turbulent summer. In the United States in July, incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race and endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris. This occurred after a poor television performance by Biden against his Republican rival Donald Trump.
The American people will vote on the 5th of November. Finally, we can’t forget our university home country of Wales, which gained a new leader: Baroness Eluned Morgan became First Minister and Leader of Welsh Labour this summer, following Vaughan Gething’s resignation. She was raised in the Ely region of Cardiff and is the first female leader of Wales.