Is Great Britain once again going in the opposite direction of the European Union?

Right-wing parties swept EU elections last month, but the British Tories are out. After 14 years at the helm, Britain’s Conservative Party lost in a landslide as the left-wing Labour Party cleaned up, seizing at least 410 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.

It was a bruising defeat for the Tories, as their former majority has been reduced to just 121 seats. But it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Furthermore, Labour’s victory wasn’t so much a mandate as it was a repudiation of the Tories and their recent lackluster leadership amid a slowing economy still trying to recover from the COVID pandemic.

Now, Labour will take up the reins, with its leader, Keir Starmer, becoming the country’s new prime minister. Chief among their challenges will be turning around a struggling economy without further ballooning an already high national debt.

Furthermore, Labour’s win is not as big as it appears. Despite getting 410 seats, it was done with just 35% of the overall vote, making it, according to polling expert John Curtice, “the lowest share of the vote won by any single-party majority government.” Translation: Labour won big simply because so many conservative voters chose not to vote.

Meanwhile, Britain’s upstart “far-right” Reformed UK saw success, pulling in over four million votes and picking up five seats, with party leader Nigel Farage also winning a seat in Parliament. Farage, a big proponent of Brexit, has gained in popularity as the Brits have become increasingly frustrated with growing immigration and high taxes.

Again, some have pointed out that while the rest of Europe has moved to the political right in recent elections, the UK has done the opposite. At first glance, following the results of this election, that would seem to be the case, but the success of Reformed UK and the low voter turnout belie that view.

What the result of this election clearly says is that the British people were tired of poor leadership, not that they’ve embraced leftist ideology. As The Wall Street Journal editorial board put it, “If this election had a mood, it was exasperation. Voters were fed up with an exhausted Conservative Party but not all that enthusiastic about Mr. Starmer. This suggests voters want a change from the Tories but have some anxiety about the change they want — or will get.”

The trouble is that the change they have chosen is a move away from the free market and toward a tax-and-spend governmental system. Yet Labour won on a message of freezing the corporate taxes at 25% for the next five years, a promise to seek to overhaul the UK’s high property taxes on businesses, and a freeze to many individual taxes.

Starmer is banking on these moves juicing the economy and increasing revenue for government coffers. And yet, he’s a socialist, which will inevitably result in even more governmental control over the populace.

So, in brief, the British are tired of the Tories’ poor leadership and are giving Labour a chance at the controls. It will be interesting to see how patient they are. Time will tell whether this election result signifies a sea change back to years of Labour rule or is instead a message to the Tories that they need to start listening to the people again.