Author: Mark Leonard
Affiliation: Co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations
Organization/Publisher: European Council on Foreign Relations
Date/Place: August 12, 2020/Berlin, Germany
Type of Literature: Analysis
Number of Pages: 28
Keywords: Conservative party, Labor party, Britain, Covid-19
Brief:
This policy brief is commissioned to identify how the Covid-19 will change UK politics. Despite Britain’s Conservative Party relying on maintaining British culture compared to the Labor Party, Covid-19 could change the voters and the party’s perception. Hence, the Conservative Party must respond to the voters on the ground, and balance between culture and economy. The Covid-19 crisis has put the Conservative Party in a critical situation due to its mismanagement of the pandemic in Britain. More than that, as a contradiction to the conservative ideology, Britons see that working together and cooperation with the world to survive is a must amid the pandemic. This means that the current leading party (Conservative) probably will replace Brexit nationalism with pragmatic politics that urge Britain to cooperate abroad and stand against economic challenges at home. In this respect, despite the Conservative Party’s base supporters that prefer British exceptionalism and support isolationism, post Covid-19 it must support a pragmatic agenda and understand the new era of political competition.
By: Imad Atoui, CIGA Research Associate
