Brexit is the only big legacy of the 2019-24 parliament
An abrupt election crimps the Tories’ already-slim legislative record
Rishi Sunak’s plan to introduce a phased ban on smoking always had the look of a last-ditch effort to secure a legacy. It was apposite, then, that in hurrying towards a snap election the prime minister accidentally stubbed out his own ground-breaking law (which could not be passed in the “wash-up” period after Mr Sunak announced the election on May 22nd and before Parliament dissolved). No matter. The lesson voters should take, Mr Sunak insisted brightly at a campaign event on May 27th, is that “I was the prime minister that put that bold policy on the table”.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Limitations of statute”
Britain June 1st 2024
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- Sir Keir Starmer meets the public. Sort of
- Brexit is the only big legacy of the 2019-24 parliament
- The seats where Labour is concentrating its campaign firepower
- Footballer, broadcaster, podcast mogul: the career of Gary Lineker
- The British election is becoming an episode of mob justice
From the June 1st 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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British MPs vote in favour of assisted dying
A monumental social reform is closer to being realised
The slow death of a Labour buzzword
And what that says about Britain’s place in the world
Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is
At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be
Can potholes fuel populism?
A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party