David Dodwell

Inside Out | Britain’s election shows Hong Kong the flaws and strengths of democracy

The results of the 2024 UK general election have humbled the Conservative Party, but also put on display some of the quirks of the democratic process

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets supporters in London on July 5 after the Labour Party’s landslide victory which ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Photo: Bloomberg

David Dodwell

Published: 8:30pm, 7 Jul 2024

Through last week’s democratic dramas in the United Kingdom and France, and as the agonising democratic stress-test in the United States continues, the best and the worst aspects of democracy at work have been on full display.

From afar, we in Hong Kong have been able to weigh what we have lost and what we have gained now that a patriotic filter has been applied to elections to our Legislative Council, a chamber that had become chaotic and dysfunctional.

The recent polls have shown the capacity of democratic elections to manage even-momentous political transitions. They also powerfully demonstrate the value of democratic processes in keeping political leaders modest, and providing swift, clear and brutal judgment when they fail.

Where but in a democracy would you watch a nation’s leader humbly confess his government’s failings as Rishi Sunak did in the UK as outgoing prime minister? “I am sorry. I have given this job my all. But you have sent a clear signal that the government of the UK must change, and yours is the only judgement that matters. I have heard your anger, your disappointment; and I take responsibility for this loss,” he said.

The shocking defeat reduced the number of seats the Conservative Party holds in Britain’s parliament from 372 to 121, their poorest result on record. The election has seen the Labour Party, which took a historic drubbing in 2019, more than double its seats to 412 with a massive majority in the 650-seat parliament.

Britain’s outgoing Conservative Party prime minister Rishi Sunak with his wife Akshata Murty walk out of 10 Downing Street to a podium where Sunak made a short speech before going to see King Charles III to tender his resignation in London, on July 5. Photo: AP

But the process also delivered more subtle messages that might not easily have become visible without such an election. Labour’s gain came from a meagre increase in voter support from over 32 per cent in 2019 to 34 per cent last Thursday. Britain’s quirky “first-past-the-post” election system allowed Labour to win about 64 per cent of the seats in parliament on the back of 34 per cent of the votes.