LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Financial Times joined the Sunday Times in endorsing the opposition Labour Party on Sunday, both throwing their weight behind the party for the first time in almost two decades with days to go before the July 4 parliamentary election.
The FT has not supported Labour at a national election since 2005, but it said on Sunday that the country was hankering for a fresh start and Labour should be given the opportunity to provide it.
“The Labour Party of Sir Keir Starmer is better placed today to provide the leadership the country needs,” the FT said in its editorial, referring to the party’s leader.
The Sunday Times said in an editorial that the country needs a “radical reset” after 14 years of Conservative rule.
That newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, has backed the Conservatives at every election since 2005 but said the country could not carry on with an “exhausted” party.
“We believe it is now the right time for Labour to be entrusted with restoring competence to government,” the editorial said. “There comes a time when change is the only option.”
Starmer’s Labour is far ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in the opinion polls.
The Sunday Times said the period since 2016 – the year of the Brexit referendum – had been defined by political chaos which had distracted Conservative leaders from the issues which matter most to voters – healthcare, schools and the economy.
For its part, the FT said Labour under Starmer had swung back towards the centre ground and while it had concerns about the party’s “interventionist instincts and fervour for regulation”, it praised moves to prioritise revitalising growth.
The broadsheet did not endorse any party at the last election in 2019, saying there were no good choices. In 2010 and 2017 it had backed the Conservatives, and in 2015 it backed a Conservative-led coalition.
The Sun, one of Britain’s best-selling newspapers which is also owned by Murdoch, has not yet said which party it is endorsing in the election. It has a strong track record of picking election winners.
Among other newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian have also endorsed Labour, while the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph have backed the Conservatives. The Economist, a pro-business weekly magazine, has thrown its weight behind Labour.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru and Sarah Young and Kylie MacLellan in London; Editing by Gareth Jones and David Holmes)
