00:00Hello and welcome to this special broadcast on One India. Joining me today is Namanita Sarkar,
00:05senior journalist all the way from London and what a place to be here. Namanita,
00:10thank you so much for speaking to One India. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
00:16Absolutely. It's a pleasure, Namanita, because as the world or this part of the world woke up,
00:22especially in India, Rishi Sunak had by that time lost the elections and UK has a new government,
00:30has a new Prime Minister. What factors contributed to Mr K Rustomer's Labour Party
00:36achieving such a significant majority, winning over 400 seats out of the 650 in UK Parliament,
00:43a feat not seen in decades? Yeah, it's just one seat short since Tony Blair's
00:51thumping majority and the point is 14 years of the Tory government,
00:57COVID, their party, all the COVID parties, it's been a mess and plus when
01:06and the way there's been chaos within the Tory party, Liz Truss came and completely smashed the
01:10economy. I think people were exhausted, they just wanted the Tories out because the amount of
01:17corruption that's gone on is, we haven't seen it in the UK politics, not at
01:24this rate and on the other hand, I think what Keir Starmer did was after Jeremy Corbyn
01:32drove the Labour Party back to the centre. So it's like, it's a new Labour point two, new Labour was
01:42during Tony Blair's time, this is new Labour point two now. So it's more of a centrist party that is
01:50in place, it's not right and not extreme left. So I think that was the reason and people were
01:58basically fed up because if you see, although former Prime Ministers, both Boris Johnson
02:05and Theresa May did not contest from their seats but they were Tory strong seats.
02:10They've both gone to Liberal Democrats. Nine Cabinet Ministers have lost their election,
02:18so you can imagine, Tories have been decimated. Absolutely. You mentioned Liz Truss,
02:25Namanita and from Boris Johnson to Liz to Rishi Sunak, over the past five years, the impact,
02:32how do you see these changing faces? Was there a palpable impact? Was that something that
02:37costed them the elections? Definitely, there's been in fighting, everybody knows,
02:43nobody likes anybody within the Tory party and the extreme right wing of which Indian origin,
02:50Sohaila Braverman, who has unfortunately won her seat is another front runner and so has
02:58Preeti Patel, who we know is extremely right wing and very pro-BJP in India, if you ask me
03:06because she's been most vocal about it. They have both won their seats and Rishi Sunak,
03:14it wasn't his fault alone. I personally feel he didn't have the experience to be a Prime Minister.
03:20He had barely come into UK politics and too many things happened plus the way he got into
03:27office, the Boris Johnson camp did not like him because he was with Boris Johnson and he
03:34tried to blame everything on the previous government when he was Chancellor there.
03:37So it wasn't work, people couldn't trust him and he did not have the personality. I mean,
03:43his whole campaign was so silly, he kept saying don't give Labour a super majority,
03:50they will take away this, they will raise the taxes, we are the best people. Even in his
03:57conceding speech and just now he was in front of 10 Downing Street, he's left 10 Downing Street
04:03today with his wife standing behind him, spoke to the press, he apologised. But again, he says
04:09he's given a very good deal to the country and things like that. It hasn't worked and he should
04:14be graceful in his loss, in his defeat. Oh yeah, I am sorry is what he said. I mean,
04:22that if that is the beginning, then we can expect some more grace there. Nonetheless,
04:26Namanitha, going back in the past, you know, given that Brexit had played a role in the
04:31Conservative defeat, how might Keir Starmer's approach to the EU relations differ from that of
04:39Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak for that matter? Significantly, I think President Macron from
04:47France was himself in a bad position, but he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate
04:53Keir Starmer because everybody in Europe is looking for a good relationship and the way
05:01Boris Johnson treated European countries and the way he spoke and behaved, it was just not done.
05:08Although Keir Starmer has said that we're not going to reverse the Brexit decision but don't
05:14forget, he has said it in the past few days, he's a remainer but he said it but don't forget
05:21this parliament is a bit different because Tories as opposition are in a very poor figure
05:28because they're just about 120 seats and what is important is although the extreme right reform
05:36party has four seats but don't forget the Lib Dems have gained a lot, they are 71 seats and
05:43the Green Party has I think five or four seats, there are independents, there are five of them,
05:51they're all pro-Gaza so the equations will be different. Mr Keir Starmer might be forced to take
06:03a much more lenient stand than what he was saying but I believe what he was saying was to win the
06:08elections because the red wall as it used to be called had moved to the Conservatives because
06:14they wanted Brexit and so I think he wanted to win back those votes. So we'll see once the
06:19parliament starts and what he does. Right, absolutely, I mean he's the man of the moment,
06:23he's the rising sun I would say and with such a strong mandate, I mean his leadership style and
06:29politics, if you can compare it with the influential British Prime Ministers like
06:34Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair as we just discussed also, what challenges in your opinion
06:39Navneeta do you think Mr Starmer faces or might face in implementing his agenda now?
06:47One is going to be to restore the faith of the voters because voters in this country
06:55have totally lost faith in politicians because of the lies etc. He has said that he's going to,
07:02I mean this was during his campaign, he said that he's going to establish this anti-corruption
07:09commission because of the corruption that have happened in the last government. Plus his biggest
07:15thing will be the financial, the economy, getting it back online with everything.
07:23That will be his biggest challenge because the coffers, the treasury coffers are empty
07:30and how he manages to do that, they say, Labour has said that they are, they have kind of figured
07:38out where from, they work the mathematics but that will happen only once we see the parliament
07:44in action and see what is their plan to do but I think that's going to be the biggest challenge
07:50and of course re-establishing relations with the EU. Re-establishing relations.
07:57And the interesting part is, Mr Starmer has also said that he'll reduce the voting age to 16.
08:02So let's see what happens there. Oh well that would be a first.
08:08You know, Namrita, you know absolutely when you mention about the economy, the dying state
08:13coffers, that is something which is domestically is a huge huge challenge for the incoming
08:19Prime Minister. He said earlier that change begins now but Ukraine is another matter.
08:26What does he mean by this and will this, what will be his exact foreign policy amid
08:32multiple wars going on? Ukraine, I think both Tories and Labour have been in sync, in agreement.
08:42Israel and Gaza, now that is a situation where I think he'll have to reconsider his position
08:54though in his manifesto, in the Labour manifesto definitely there's been a mention of a two-state
08:59solution, there's been a mention of what the UN stand is. So now we'll have to see because
09:07a lot of his, a few of his MPs and they have lost a lot of Muslim votes. Labour has
09:12lost a lot of Muslim votes, don't forget that. That was a huge vote bank they had and some of his MPs
09:18resigned at the last minute because he wasn't taking a clear stand on the Israel-Palestine
09:24situation. So I think there has to be a reworking but America's position given the way it is,
09:32how much of a reworking stand he'll be able to take will again be very interesting and I'm,
09:37and I'm because the independents that have come in are pro-Gaza so it will be very interesting.
09:44It's a tightrope walk then, it's a tightrope walk because whether you continue with the legacy
09:48of supporting the US and its cause or maybe you choose to, to align in between. Now Marita,
09:54one final question before I let you go and I'm sure the day is still very young there,
09:59a new day, a new dawn has happened, taken place in UK. I haven't slept all night so.
10:05I can imagine, I can, we keep, kept disturbing you also for a, for this quick interview. Thank
10:10you so much. One final question, given the huge Indian diaspora that the UK houses,
10:17what is Mr Samar's view on Narendra Modi and how do you think this new relationship between India
10:24and UK, foreign relations, you know, could take a new shape, could change in the days to come?
10:30I think on that count, see there has been a shift of Indian voters since 2010 towards conservative
10:39after when David Cameron was there and he really made an effort to recruit more Indians into the
10:45party etc and he promised that you'll have a Indian prime minister very soon which did happen
10:52and but with Labour, a lot moved out. Although Labour, you know, government when the, when
11:00Indians moved here in the 60s and 70s, it was majorly Labour supporters. So the affluent and
11:06after BJP, Modi, the right-wing Hindus moved towards the conservative but Labour this year,
11:12earlier this year established some, you know, community groups for Indians etc.
11:18The relationship with India, I think the FTA that Rishi Sonak failed to conclude, I think
11:26this person is a very pragmatic leader and I have a feeling that this might actually work out
11:36in favor of both the UK and India and he might be able to conclude that FTA but yes,
11:42on issues of human right violations or something, if India is there like Rishi Sonak used to just
11:49shut up about it. I don't think because he's been a human rights barrister and I think there his
11:56stand will be a little more strident but I don't fear, I mean a lot of
12:06Indian government officials have asked me in the past that can you, how is
12:11Labour going to be with India? I don't think there's going to be any kind of a staunch thing.
12:15The whole concept of Kashmir and all had gone out of the window after Robin Cook so
12:21and I have been part of that. So I don't think that plebiscite issue and all will come back.
12:26Absolutely, good to hear that Namrita and good to hear from you also on this very fateful day.
12:31Thank you so much ladies and gentlemen. Namrita Sarkar there all the way from London on the new
12:37government that has just been formed in the UK. Namrita have a very good day.
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