Lions led by donkeys: A cynic’s view to UK parties

Over a year into the Labour government, and the two-party system has been wrecked - fragmented into five parties, each arguing for No. 10. However, while claiming that their party is the best because they won a single seat in a council by-election, they all seem to have forgotten to create any sort of credibility for themselves. Never in the history of UK politics has every party failed so miserably in convincing the public to vote for them. So, from left to right, here’s why you should be voting for no one.

Under Zack Polanski, the Greens seem to have gained a long-missing charisma, and as a result their polling has seen a huge surge from 8% in January 2025 to 14% in October. However, the same can’t be said about their policies. Their commitment to radical change with limited costs would lead to complete instability for our country and the markets that support our economic system. At their most recent conference they voted in favour of “seeking the effective abolition of private landlordism,” which currently covers 19% of households in England and is entirely uncosted. They also still support replacing the House of Lords, replacing First Past the Post as our general election voting system, and “dismantling our nuclear weapons.”  Radical change isn’t always bad – but when a party seeks to completely overthrow our way of politics and introduce dogmatic socialist policies into a traditionally capitalist society, the only outcome would be, albeit with good intentions, a deeply misguided government.

Labour have been handed a difficult situation which has been accompanied by an unfortunate series of scandals including Angela Rayner’s stamp duty slip-up, the recent mishandling of the China Spy case, and the “gifts” given to Starmer by Lord Alli early on in his premiership. Regardless, they seem to lack any backbone within the senior ranks of their party, which isn’t helped by the endless “flip-flopping” between policy decisions. Furthermore, the threat of a leadership challenge and a third resignation from Peter Mandelson has left a permanent mark on the now scandal-riddled Labour Party. This is only further reflected by the YouGov poll from 6^th October 2025 which resulted in 72% of respondents rating Starmer’s time as PM “badly”. Despite having been thrown in the deep end, the Labour Party lack confidence in their own senior leadership, as do the British public, and appear to be sinking rather than swimming.

The “Liberal Democrats” appear to have forgotten their own name and instead have attempted to replicate Boris Johnson’s unseriousness into their own leadership campaign. Ed Davey’s marching bands and kayak adventures have been accompanied by a very ‘un-liberal’ call to ban people from playing music out loud on trains, as well as a very ‘un-democratic’ long-term goal of rejoining the EU. Have they forgotten that in 2016 the British public voted to leave the EU? The Lib Dems are still snapping up “Middle England” seats and Davey’s positivity will always be a welcome change to divisive politics, but they can only wander so far before they realise they have lost their way in politics.

The Conservative Party owes a lot of grovelling to the British public for the past 14 years. Compounded by the fact that 80% of current Tory MPs having been in power during those disastrous years, the claim that they’re a new party with fresh ideas, despite a change of leadership doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.Their leadership debacle isn’t free of controversy either. James Cleverly somehow managed to throw away what seemed like a free ride to the top, whilst Jenrick can’t decide whether he’s going to challenge Kemi or defect to Reform. The main problem with the Tories right now is that they lack any real direction or conviction that if elected they won’t become the same government that the British public so recently kicked out of Downing Street.

Finally, Reform UK have geared their policies towards populist radical change, appealing to the masses and creating a surge in the polls. However, their main issue is the continued allegations of racism which follow them around. Whether it’s the rumours of Farage singing “Hitler youth” songs, Lee Anderson claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, or Sarah Pochin’s most recent claim that “every [TV] advert” seemed to include “black and Asian people”, Reform cannot and will not be able to deny accusations of racism within their senior ranks. In no way does this mean that their supporter base is racist, but it does mean that voting them into government runs the risk of marginalising the variety of cultures that make Britain such a positively diverse society. 

Despite the deeply unfortunate state of UK parties at the moment, the British public must remain hopeful that the power-hungry party leaders realise something isn’t working. They must leave their Westminster bubble and see that this country needs an alternative – to hate, incompetence, and parliamentary squabbling. A real alternative for the public to vote for in 2029 seems a long way away, but we’ve still got four years until then, so surely things will improve … right?

By Harry Clarke

Image: Getty Images.