Britain’s Conservatives Are Eroding Democracy
With recent legislation, the Tories have restricted immigration, disenfranchised voters, and enhanced police powers. The Labour Party leadership needs to do something to stop this turn in British politics.
British prime minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, May 18, 2022. (Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
The year has not reached its halfway mark, yet the UK government has already pushed through a raft of repressive laws, with more on the way. The changes amount to an attack on UK democracy and the ability of the courts to hold the government to account. Although grassroots campaigns came together to resist the changes, in the absence of a coordinated, official opposition resisting in the name of democracy, they were not able to succeed.
A Raft of Repressive Legislation
The changes passed by the Conservative government obstruct the principal avenues for holding it to account for its actions. At the beginning of last month, the Elections Act 2022 introduced ID checks on voters. The act, which could potentially disenfranchise millions, will strip the Electoral Commission, the body responsible for ensuring UK elections are lawful, of its independence by allowing the government to set its terms and priorities.
This is not the only piece of antidemocratic legislation the Tories were able to pass last month. The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 limits the power of the courts to remedy unlawful government action on the part of the executive. Additionally, the government has further criminalized political protests via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This legislation provides the police with new powers to intervene in protests where the noise caused by them would cause “significant disruption.”
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