Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a general election, which will take place on Thursday 4 July.
Speaking outside Downing Street in an address to the nation, the Prime Minister said, “I have never and I will never leave people face the darkest times alone. I will forever do everything in my power to protect you.”
It comes after an afternoon of mounting speculation that the PM was due to call a summer election after he refused to squash the rumours during PMQs.
So, who has earned your vote? Here, we revisit Chloe Law's investigation into the young women who feel disenfranchised by the two-party political system. Not feeling Team Rishi or Team Keir? You're not alone…
British politics, it's fair to say, is a farce.
We're in an era of unelected prime ministers; lumped with a stale two-party system; inundated with scandal upon scandal; allegations of sexual assault in Westminster; a cost of living crisis largely caused by the very people tasked with solving it; inhumane policies that are brutalising refugees; laws being broken by those making them.
Every day, MPs go on daytime TV to scapegoat transgender people. Every day, we read another traumatic story about poverty in this country and every day, it is rebranded by the government and the so-called ‘opposition’ as the fault of a minority rather than, say, the people running our public sectors. We are in the midst of a housing crisis; an energy crisis; a food crisis. And yet, the public is not being offered any alternatives.
The Labour Party's main campaign, led by Sir Keir Starmer, appears only to be ‘we're not as bad as the other guys’. The Tory Party is doubling down on their most vicious policies, putting asylum seekers on barges. Everything in British politics is side-stepping more and more to the right. Which, even if you are on the right, should be worrying in any democracy.
Parliament is not, even vaguely, representative of the country it is there to serve. In 2020, Boris Johnson’s cabinet was nine times more likely to have gone to an independent school than the general population. The gap between the proportion of MPs who went to university and the proportion of the population who did is over 50%. As reported in March, women make up just 31% of parliamentarians. In recent years women’s representation has increased, although in most cases, men remain overrepresented, especially in more senior positions.
“I’m embarrassed for Britain as a country, the world thinks we are bananas, and I agree.”
There are many issues plaguing British politics right now, and no immediate antidote. This lack of choice, which is leaving many young people disillusioned with politics, highlights the problem with a two-party system.
Since the Second World War, all the governments in the UK have been formed by either the Labour Party or the Conservative Party (with the exception of 2010, when the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats). This system offers the appearance of stability but is formed on shaky ground. Without proportional representation – the idea that the seats in parliament should be proportionate to the votes cast – means there's a lot of room for power to be unevenly allocated.
All of this has left a lot of young women unsure of who to vote for. We spoke to three GLAMOUR readers to find out more.
Nina* (23), a shop owner based in London, tells me that she's “sad and angry” about the state of UK politics and has been since before Brexit. She's not a fan of the Conservatives and is alarmed by the “racism, corruption, and extreme far-right views across the party.”
"Every week I think, ‘This is as low as they will go’, and yet they get worse. I’m embarrassed for Britain as a country, the world thinks we are bananas, and I agree.”
Erin (30), a writer from North London, has previously voted Conservative but doesn't align herself with any of the political parties. She describes those who use “Tory-bashing as an identity” to be reductive and irritating. However, she tells GLAMOUR, "In the past decade, it has become actually warranted.”
She cites Brexit as a pivotal factor in “exposing the lunacy of British politics” and points to “constant backstabbing and plotting and endless machinations in the Tory party in the service of maintaining power have taken over Westminster,” which has “infected other parties in [a] mad grab for power.”
“The whole thing seems to be slowly melting in front of our eyes.”
As for how she'll be spending the next election? “Crying,” she says. "But probably voting Labour for the first time.”
It's not a perk, it's a necessity.
Lisa (40), who works in the education sector in Manchester, grew up in a Labour household but is feeling conflicted about voting for them in the next general election.
After reading about Labour's stance on housing and immigration, she feels that “the party's values and views no longer mirror [her] own.”
Lisa is passionate about supporting the most vulnerable in our society, which she believes can be achieved by taxing the wealthiest. She wants the next government to tackle a wealth of issues, from climate change to the cost of living crisis – but are either of the main political parties up to the job?
“We are not kept by the government; they are kept by us.”
In their own ways, Nina, Erin and Lisa all feel disillusioned with the two-party system. Nina argues that the UK's political system is too similar to the USA's, arguing that countries with proportional representation tend to have “healthy competition to keep political parties in check.”
When it feels inevitable that either the Conservatives or Labour will triumph, voting for anyone else seems redundant. As Nina says, “I don’t want to vote Labour at all, but my vote for the Green Party is pretty meaningless as it stands.”
Lisa also feels a sense of helplessness in the face of our current political system: “I'd like to say I'd be brave and vote for the Green Party, who on the surface seem more aligned with my own values and views," says Lisa. “However,” she continues, “I'm desperate to see the Tories out and know that realistically, tactfully voting is the best bet, which means voting Labour.”
For Erin, the two-party system perpetuates an unhelpful binary between “liberal lefties vs Tory scum,” which she describes as “unhelpful, childish and unsustainable.”
"There are heinous Tory policies, there are good Tory policies, there are brilliant Labour ideas, and there are not-so-brilliant ones – yet they can never work together to, I dunno, get shit done for the country,” she continues.
“We should be finding a middle ground here because we all live on the same sodding island, and no one is going to get anything done if we don't.”
Apathy is a natural response to politics of late, and it's something many of the people in power are banking on; it keeps them comfortable. But we are not a petri dish. We are not kept by the government; they are kept by us.
‘People power’ might feel like an outdated term, but it's important to remember that we still have autonomy – and a vote. Perhaps it's time we had a say in how our votes are counted.
For more from Chloe Laws, follow her on Instagram at @chloegracelaws.
“The laws surrounding consent simply do not protect victims, and they need to change.”
