UK election: major tabloid The Sun backs Labour over Rishi Sunak’s Tories
- The last time the influential Murdoch-owned newspaper endorsed the party was during Tony Blair’s tenure from 1997
Major UK tabloid The Sun said on Wednesday it was “time for Labour”, backing the opposition party for election victory and calling the ruling Conservatives “exhausted” and divided after 14 years in power.
Political leaders of all stripes have long courted the influential newspaper, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s global News Corp group and last backed Labour during Tony Blair’s tenure from 1997.
Announcing its endorsement, the famously playful tabloid previewed its front page for Thursday, when Britons vote and are widely predicted by polls to return Labour to power by a landslide.
“Time for a new manager,” it headlined, in a football-themed cover to coincide with Euro 2024, adding: “and we don’t mean sack [England team manager Gareth] Southgate!”
The Sun said in a lengthy editorial that it supported many of beleaguered Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s policies, including the contentious plan to deport thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda.
But it added the party’s rule over the last 14 years had been “often chaotic” and that it has “become a divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country”.
