
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) is a stable, high-performing democracy. It is a permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council and boasts the world’s sixth largest economy, although it has the highest income inequality of any major European economy. Between 1973 and 2020, the UK was also a member of the European Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Community. The UK withdrew from the EU following a 2016 referendum in which a narrow majority of voters opted to leave the regional bloc. The departure process, known colloquially as 'Brexit', has had a profound political impact on the country, revealing new social divisions and giving rise to a more populist brand of politics. Notwithstanding these developments, the UK’s Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoDI) scores over the course of the past five years have remained relatively stable.
British society is diverse and is marked by a complex mix of identities that exert considerable influence on its politics. The national identities of its constitutive nations – England, Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland - are amongst the most salient of these identities and have produced political nationalisms that increasingly threaten the integrity of the UK. These national divisions appear to have been deepened by the Brexit referendum, with Scottish and English nationalists in particular holding strongly opposing views on EU membership. Immigration from across the Commonwealth and from Europe have over time added new layers of diversity and identity to the UK’s nations, as immigrants brought with them new languages, religions and ethnicities. Previous tolerance of such diversity has been eroded as multiculturalism and other liberal values have increasingly been contested by politicians and voters holding authoritarian and socially conservative values. Since the Brexit referendum, this liberal-authoritarian cleavage has divided voters and parties on key issues such as national sovereignty and immigration. Connected to the value divide is another important cleavage, that between voters living in the UK’s prosperous cities and regions (who tend to hold more socially liberal views) and voters in less prosperous regions and rural areas (who tend to hold more socially conservative and authoritarian views). This economic-geographical division has grown out of the concentration of governance and economic productivity in London and its hinterlands, which has produced some of the highest levels of regional inequality in the developed world.
There are two concerning developments to watch in the years to come. The first is the erosion of civil liberties protections. This is evident in recently passed legislation restricting the right to peaceful protest (the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act) and weakening of the rights of asylum seekers, immigrants, dual nationals and those born abroad (the Nationality and Borders Act). In line with this legislation are the proposed reforms to the country’s core human rights law, the Human Rights Act, which if passed, would make the enforcement of civil liberties more difficult. Concerning too are the government’s legislative and rhetorical attacks on the independence of the Electoral Commission, the UK’s independent electoral management body. If these continue, it may affect the UK’s performance in the Clean Elections sub-attribute of the GSoDI.
Monthly Updates
November 2022
The Electoral Commission, election officials, local authorities and civil society organizations have voiced concerns over the Elections Act, as passed by Parliament in April 2022. Requiring voters to show photographic identification before being allowed to vote in parliamentary, local and certain other elections, the Act will apply to the local elections scheduled for May 2023. The list of acceptable forms of voter ID was published in secondary legislation this month and faced criticism for disproportionately approving forms of ID held by older people vis-a-vis younger generations. For those who do not hold an approved ID, a Voter Authority Certificate will be made available, although arrangements for this will not be finalized until January 2023 at the earliest. In private correspondence with the Government, it was also revealed this month that the Electoral Commission described the voter ID timeline as neither “workable” nor “secure” and warned that it has the potential to disenfranchise parts of the electorate, particularly those already marginalized. Its potential to polarize and affect trust in the electoral process has additionally been raised.
October 2022
Rishi Sunak has become the fifth Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in six years following a cursory Conservative Party leadership contest. His predecessor Liz Truss resigned following the continuing fallout from the ‘mini-budget’ in September, making her the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with a term of 45 days. Sunak has become the first UK Prime Minister of colour, and also the wealthiest, with him and his wife possessing double the wealth of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla.
September 2022
After winning the Conservative Party leadership contest, Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson to become the fourth Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in six years. Johnson had announced his resignation in July 2022 following a set of scandals within the governing party, including ‘partygate’ – in which the now former Prime Minister was fined for breaking lockdown rules. Truss has faced an unstable start to her premiership, as the announcement of the ‘mini-budget’ led to turmoil in the financial markets, with the pound falling to an all-time low against the dollar and the Bank of England launching a £65 billion bailout for pension funds.