Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat for the Conservatives on Friday morning but retained their seats in Parliament.
Mr Sunack won 47.5 per cent of the vote in the Richmond and North Allerton constituency in the north of England. He won by a narrow margin, but it must have been a relief to Mr Sunack, who was said to have been worried about holding on to his once-safe seat in the days leading up to the vote.
But it was also a somber moment as Mr Sunack admitted in his acceptance speech that his party had lost. “Labour has won this election,” he declared, adding that he had phoned Labour leader and future prime minister Keir Starmer to congratulate him.
Few in Richmond expected him to be voted out of parliament. Mr Sunack’s Conservative Party has long been influential in rural Yorkshire. Had he lost the contest, he would have become the first sitting prime minister to lose a parliamentary seat.
“If you put a billy goat in Richmond, it would have been Conservative,” said Laurence Hathaway, 94. “It was always Conservative.”
But this year Mr Sunack – a billionaire who opponents have described as insensitive to the needs of ordinary people – has faced a historic backlash after 14 years of Tory leadership. The party led a tumultuous exit from the European Union and Britain has been mired in a cost-of-living crisis for years, with inflation hitting 11.1% in 2022 and only recently returning to target.
Polls show voters are frustrated with the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, concerned about the health system and angry at the leadership of Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, who was in office for just 45 days.
Some in Richmond felt that Prime Minister Sunak had taken on responsibility for problems that began before his presidency and were far beyond the capabilities of any one prime minister to handle.
“Most people here like Rishi Sunak,” said Barbara Richmond, 70, who owns a vacation home nearby but does not vote in Richmond.
“For most Yorkshire people, family comes first,” she said. “And he’s a family man.”
But many were sickened by the scandals that had plagued the Conservative Party. There was “Partygate,” in which Boris Johnson and his Downing Street staff flouted government lockdown rules during the pandemic, triggering Mr Johnson’s downfall. There was Mrs Truss’s flawed tax cuts that led to economic chaos. And in recent weeks, there were allegations that Conservative staff had been betting on the timing of an early election.
“I’m very annoyed,” said Carol Sheard, a 70-something retired woman who votes in Mr. Sunack’s district. “It’s like a circus.”
Even some of Mr Sunak’s supporters were lukewarm to him. During the campaign, the prime minister made several mistakes, including holding the D-Day commemorations early. As a hugely wealthy man, he often seemed to be out of touch with the average voter.
“He was really behind the times,” said John Morrison, 86, but he said he still voted Conservative.
“Like many people, I held my nose and voted for Rishi,” he said. “He’s the best of a bad bunch.”
