Britain has just dispatched its sixth prime minister in a decade, and is about to get its seventh. The country that used to be held up as a model of grown-up political stability is suddenly looking rather Mediterranean.The Economist started it in 2022, when Liz Truss was ousted, with its “Welcome to Britaly” front cover. With the fall of Sir Keir Starmer, Italian newspapers are making the same point. Il Sole 24 Ore, not untypically, speaks of “L’italianizzazione del Regno Unito”. Giorgia Meloni, Italian commentators gleefully point out, will soon be on her fourth British prime minister — though she still has some way to go before she matches Margaret Thatcher’s record of outlasting nine Italians.What is going on? In Italy, the cause was easily identified: a proportional system that created lots of small parties, each ready to bring down a coalition when it did not get its way. Britain’s political institutions, though, would be recognizable to Queen Victoria. The problem is not structural.
European pundits, including Italians, have a simple explanation. Britain, they say, has become ungovernable because of Brexit. It is true that Brexit played a part in the downfall of two prime ministers. David Cameron resigned after losing the 2016 referendum, and Theresa May, who succeeded him, was ousted for being so dim and indecisive that she alienated all sides on the issue. That, though, does not explain the fate of their successors.
