LONDON, July 5. /TASS/. The Labour Party's rise to power in the UK will not contribute to establishing a dialogue between London and Moscow or ending the conflict in Ukraine, Lord Richard Balfe, a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament, lamented in a conversation with a TASS correspondent.
"Every time I've brought it up in the House of Lords, the Labour party has been solidly behind the conservative position, which is, of course, nonsense. But, no, I don't think there'll be much change," the lord noted. "I find the whole of the foreign policy of both parties really quite pathetic. You know, we have to realize that, as my old friend Mikhail Gorbachev said, we are in a common home and we've got to make it work. We can't keep on with the way we've behaved for all these years," Balfe added.
He also emphasized that the West will have to "come to terms with the reality," admitting that Crimea and Donbass are now Russian constituencies. In this regard, the politician hopes that the US takes a more sensible position after the presidential election in November. In his opinion, Labour's policy on Russia will be determined by Washington's course, which London will follow. "The Labour Party will more or less do as they are told, or asked to do, to be more polite," he said.
According to Balfe, the Conservative Party, which suffered a crushing defeat in the July 4 elections, may need ten years to regain its position and return to power in the country. However, the politician thinks that eventually, this will indeed happen. He also predicts that Jeremy Hunt, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Rishi Sunak, and in 2018-2019 - Foreign Secretary of the Kingdom, may become the next leader of the Tories. "There's enough lunatics in the conservative party to elect someone who will prove to be not acceptable to the general public. And then we'll have to go through the whole thing again," the lord added.
Balfe, 80, was a member of the European Parliament from 1979-2004, a member of the UK Labour Party for most of that time. In 2002, he joined the Conservative Party, and in 2013 he was granted life peerage and the title of lord.
The UK’s Labour Party won the country’s general election, securing 410 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons, giving them the right to form a government. The Conservative Party suffered its biggest defeat in history.