From Rule, Britannia to Rue, Britannia
Sticker from the 2025 Unite the Kingdom rallies, insulting Prime Minister Starmer. Photo courtesy of Doyle of London, from Wikimedia Commons.
In 2024, the United Kingdom overwhelmingly elected the Labour Party to lead the next government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, putting an end to the Conservative (Tory) Party’s 14-year rule. On the surface, Labour’s victory seemed resounding: they gained a two-thirds majority alongside a mandate to govern, electing 411 out of 650 Members of Parliament (MPs). The Tories suffered a historic loss, their worst in over 100 years, totalling less than a quarter of all votes. With this being the center-left’s biggest win since 1997, reducing its significance to the cyclical nature of the UK’s two-party system may be a gross oversimplification. A deeper analysis of this election shows another reason why 2024 made history: the unsuspected rise of a multi-party system.
In 2024, the combined total vote-share of Labour and the Tories stood at only 57.4% — the lowest level of support for the two major parties since the emergence of the UK’s two-party system in the 1922 elections. 117 third-party MPs were elected this cycle, constituting the largest multi-party parliament the UK has had since 1923.
The reduced influence of the two-party system could perhaps be attributed to the steady rise of populism grounded in economic discontent. The UK’s economy has steadily stagnated over the past 20 years, though it remains the sixth largest in the world. Public services have been under enormous pressure, and the wealth gap between London and the rest of the country has grown due to the rising valuation of private assets. Unsurprisingly, economic optimism has reached new lows. It therefore tracks that economic dissatisfaction and fundamental quality of life problems have been at the forefront of voter priorities, especially considering the significant impact of global shifts such as universally rising prices, COVID-19 disruptions, and the constant threat of multi-national military conflict.
This populist shift manifested itself in the form of the meteoric rise of Reform UK, a conservative party which not only won their first ever Parliament seats, but also managed to come third in the national vote total. The sharp increase in support for the populist right is additionally embodied in the “Unite the Kingdom” rallies that began to rock the country in 2025 and have continued most recently into May 2026. The mobilization and increasing noise of far-right sentiments in the UK over the past two years demonstrate recent political tensions, foreshadowing potential shifts in the country’s future political culture.
Reform UK is led by eccentric politician Nigel Farage. Known for his countless viral Cameo moments and his stint in the EU Parliament, Farage is a popular figure leading the UK’s populist right who is considered by many to be the one man who can “save” the country. Many view Reform UK as the heir to the legacy of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Brexit movement, which defined British right-wing anti-establishmentarianism in the 2010s. Farage cleverly capitalized on the rising discontent roused by the Brexit movement and disguised popular crises on issues such as identity, race, and culture as issues with national sovereignty. Reform UK encourages the existing philosophy of British nativism by utilizing the image of an "invading other" as a threat to national, racial, and cultural identity. This paternalistic, xenophobic rhetoric has clearly manifested itself through policy. Reform UK has prominently proposed curbing ‘non-essential’ immigration and significantly increasing deportations. They’ve also pushed for the elimination of “woke ideology” from schools, the scrapping of climate net-zero targets, and the subsidization of landlords and small business owners. Reform UK placed third at the 2024 elections, fielding a record number of candidates. Their power has only grown; polling today indicates that Reform has surpassed both Labour and the Tories to become the most popular party in the country. Reform UK has presented itself as a daunting opponent to the current government, and the two-party system more broadly.
The erosion of the Labour-Tory party system is perhaps best exemplified by the defection of major Tory party leaders to Reform. Most recently, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman expressed that she felt like she’d “come home” when she defected to Reform. Braverman’s switch can be viewed as a strategic move to the party with greater momentum, clearly signaling which right-wing party and ideology holds the most political pull. This broader shift is demonstrative of the efficacy of Farage’s plan to supplant the Tories and cement Reform as the nation’s conservative hegemon. In the aftermath of the 2024 elections, 63% of Reform voters saw themselves as one of the major parties, and it’s hard to refute them.
This third-party shift has not been contained to the right. The Green Party, whose platform centers on environmentalism, support for expanded immigration, and general progressivism, has proven itself to be a formidable left-wing alternative to Labour. In 2024, they gained 6.7% of the national vote. As the UK Green Party has grown, they too have embraced populism. Newly elected party leader Zack Polanski has posited “eco-populism” as the new guiding philosophy of the Greens, directing the party toward an “anti-elite” framework. Polling in March 2026 suggested that the Greens had the support of 21% of the electorate, overtaking Labour and becoming the second most supported party in the country. Polanski’s popularity, a strong policy platform, and a clear social profile have catapulted the Greens into a strong position in the new system. February 2026 saw a momentous win for the Greens that sent a clear message of public dissatisfaction with the establishment Labour party: in the Gorton-and-Denton by-election for MP, the Greens were able to win in a district described as a left-leaning Labour stronghold for decades.
The Greens are not the only left-wing populist party to emerge in recent years. Your Party, founded by former progressive Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, seeks to ride the third-party wave with a radical and ambitious approach to party organization. They advertise themselves as a “new kind of political party— one that belongs to you”. Their rhetoric is steeped deeply in morality, with Sultana arguing that the path forward is either “socialism or barbarism.” It's clear how both Your Party and the Greens aim for a strategy of anti-elitist, emotional, high-intensity political language that galvanizes the masses and activates popular mobilization. Your Party reached hundreds of thousands of mailing list sign-ups before it had even been formalized; they advocate for a type of grassroots democracy that contrasts with the centralization of power in the dominant parties. However, Your Party, since its inception, has dealt with very clear issues of incoherent strategy, infighting, and ineffective messaging hindering its progress. The factions surrounding Sultana and Corbyn have been mired in petty power plays against each other and true leadership of the party has been intensely debated. Moreover, within the party, there are contrasting opinions on the inclusion of far-left sects and what the party’s place on the British ideological spectrum should be in light of the Greens providing a solid leftist alternative to Labour. The issues have led to Your Party, in the eyes of many, hurting its potential to become an important actor in the new third-party environment.
The UK’s multi-party shift has been broadly touted as a surprising and unprecedented development given the country’s electoral system. Many argue that the country’s first-past-the-post system, wherein the simple majority winner of a constituent district takes the whole seat, favors the consolidation of votes into the two largest parties and inhibits the growth of smaller third parties. These assertions of the absolutist nature of the two-party system are clearly contrasted by the rise of parties like Reform, Green, and Your Party. Despite the fact that 2024 was the year of Labour’s landslide victory, they only actually earned around a third of the national vote. Reform and the Greens put on strong showings in the 2024 elections, making Labour’s win carry a huge asterisk. Clear dissatisfaction with the two major parties, coupled with the increasingly chaotic state of global politics, has set the stage for heightened polarization. This environment allows for the overcoming of the limits of the electoral system.
The UK has been plagued by feelings of sociopolitical alienation due to rising inequality and decreasing standards of living, and many looked to Labour as a reprieve from Tory instability. Thus far, they have not lived up to this expectation and the Starmer administration is accordingly at historic levels of unpopularity. According to current opinion polling, only 16% of the country is satisfied with his premiership. Starmer’s government has been a complete disaster, with multiple major cabinet figures resigning, losing the already tenuous mandate of the people, and ultimately culminating in his resignation as Prime Minister on June 22. A “climate of fear” has been fostered within the party, according to other Labour politicians. While “not being the Tories” was enough to get Starmer elected, the political stability and bold agenda that he campaigned on have not been enacted. The consensus today is that Labour has “overpromised and underdelivered.” Opinion polling indicates that 36% of Labour voters in 2024 expected them to do well and have been disappointed, especially on issues related to welfare cuts. Additionally, Labour has dropped the ball economically and faced a number of domestic policy failures, such as their inability to meet their target of 1.5 million new homes built by the end of the parliamentary year. The final blow has come with their less-than-stellar response to the immigration public opinion crisis. Labour has adopted many of the right-wing Tory and Reform talking points, and has escalated that rhetoric to the introduction of tighter restrictions on legal migration.
Labour’s unpopularity is connected to agenda goal failures, U-turns on many platform promises, ideological incoherence, and weak, uncharismatic leadership. A perceived continuation of the poor governance and insufficient reform seen under the Tories has contributed to Labour being simultaneously seen as too “blue” by its base and too “soft” by the right. These are the core catalysts for the exponential growth of third-party populist factions.
The overwhelming electoral defeat of the Tories and the failures of Labour’s government are demonstrative of the UK’s shift toward a multi-party system, which has only accelerated in the past year. The steep rise in national support for populist policy and rhetoric is not just indicative of a broader global trend; it is symptomatic of an insufficient two-party establishment that has left the UK population seeking radical, new alternatives to put the country on the right path forward. The general elections in 2027 have the significant potential of signaling the arrival of a new populist, multi-party era.
Tommaso Tricamo (CC '28) is a staff writer from Milan, Italy, studying Political Science and History. He is passionate about politics, history, and good food and can be reached at tvt2105@columbia.edu.