Elections are often treated as the key indicator of the health of democracy. From that perspective, the UK General Election of July 2024 can be seen as reassuring. The Single Member Plurality or ‘First-Past-the-Post’ system employed in elections to the House of Commons, though producing a controversially disproportionate result, also delivered on one of its supposed key strengths – being a means of removing a government or ‘throwing out the rascals’. All parties, winners and losers alike, accepted the outcomes as legitimate. Yet, democracy is also about what happens in-between elections, in politics and society: about what those who hold governmental office do, how they are held to account on all our behalf, and how we behave towards each other and cope with disagreement.
So what have we learned about ongoing democracy in 2024? The year has exposed three types of vulnerabilities. First of all, at the societal level, the far-right, anti-immigration riots of the summer showed that threats to democracy can emerge quickly and unexpectedly. These riots threatened the rights of particular groups in society – migrants and asylum seekers –, exposed individual members of these groups to violence, and rejected peaceful democratic means of resolving differences in views. Though only a small part of the population was actively involved, there was wider (but minority) support for the associated protests of August 2024, though less for the riots themselves.
Both the riots and wider tendencies of intolerance towards migrants and asylum seekers received encouragement from, and may partly have been brought about by, misinformation spread via social media. Such communication technologies are Janus-faced. They can enhance the quality of life of their users, including through facilitating more active political participation. But they can also place pressure on the operation of free and fair elections, and democracy in general, both because of the way in which algorithms work and the potential for foreign interference that they offer. This is all in addition to domestic and foreign political donations and the influence they can exercise on democratic processes.
Secondly, at the political level, failure to comply with certain democratic norms, a feature of the Boris Johnson administration in particular, persisted under the Rishi Sunak government during the first half of 2024. Shortcomings included the promulgation of unreliable information about government policy, as well as the passing of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 in April, which was in part driven by the societal views mentioned above, and raised serious questions about respect for human rights, constitutionality, and compliance with international law.
Despite its promises to restore citizens’ trust and the public service spirit, the new Labour government promptly became embroiled in ‘giftgate’, which may not have added up to a violation of any rules, but did contravene both societal norms and the rules that many of us have to comply with in our own workplaces; hugely problematic for a new government that committed itself to moving away from the ‘one rule for them, one rule for us’ approach of the Johnson era.
The year was less reassuring from a democratic perspective than the elections suggest. The UK is not alone in all of this – and populism in particular is putting pressure on democracy around the globe. In July, three members of the new Labour Cabinet expressed concern that – should they fail to implement their promises – voters would increasingly turn to such options. Politicians command lower levels of public confidence than members of any other profession (including bankers, journalists, landlords, estate agents, and advertisers!) and a substantial proportion of the public fear that mob rule is replacing democratic rule.
Still, there is some light in the darkness. On taking office, the government swiftly dropped the policy of deporting refugees to Rwanda that the Safety of Rwanda Act was intended to facilitate. The August riots were met with anti-racist counter-protests in different cities and by swift political and judicial action. In September, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced a package of responses, including stricter requirements for social media companies to take responsibility for content on their platforms. Moreover, after a rough start, the new government took various steps to strengthen democratic processes. The edition of the Ministerial Code issued in November tightened some of the rules around ministerial conduct and enhanced the enforcement mechanisms for those rules. Labour is also committed to new regulations covering donations to political parties, and a proposed ‘Hillsborough Law’ introducing a duty of candour for public servants, confirmed in the King’s speech.
The future is uncertain, and the challenges are substantial. But there are at least some signs that 2025 could be a better year for ongoing democracy in the UK.
Read more at the Centre for British Democracy.