Tomorrow’s general election in the U.K. comes at a time when the far right appears to be surging across the West, making recent gains in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and elsewhere. In France, the far right is on the doorstep of forming a government, and the U.S. presidential election in November could very well return former President Donald Trump to power.

And yet, the U.K. will be moving in the opposite direction. Tomorrow’s vote is all but guaranteed to see voters turn their backs on a Tory Party that, after 14 years in power, has become increasingly dominated by its far-right faction. The only real unknown is how bad the Tories’ defeat will be.

As we’ve talked about in prior Daily Reviews, there are a number of factors that have led to the Tory Party’s unraveling, the most notable being Brexit. The divisive debates surrounding the Brexit referendum in 2016 initially seemed to reconfigure the country’s political landscape in the Tories’ favor. But those debates, especially over the question of how to implement Brexit, also empowered the party’s far-right wing, pushing the Tories toward the populist extremes, while the Labour Party moved back to the “responsible” center.

But there is more to the Tories’ current downfall than just the radicalizing effect that Brexit had on the party. This election, like many, also boils down to the economy. The Conservative Party has spent its 14 years in power pursuing austerity measures that have stripped local governments of their ability to maintain basic services. And the impact of Brexit has handicapped the British economy in ways that are visible at every level, from underperforming growth to stagnant wages. In the midst of a broader cost of living crisis and high inflation, the Tories’ governance has simply worn out its welcome.

The question now is what the Labour Party will do—or, more realistically, can do—once it’s in power. The new government will face a number of challenges to implementing its agenda, from overcoming the growing backlash to climate measures to addressing the impact of Brexit without trying to reverse it. Voters are also concerned about the growing number of migrants arriving from across the English Channel, which the Tory Party tried to stop using hardline policies of questionable legality and unquestionable cruelty.

From outside the country, the new government will be viewed favorably by both Brussels, with which Labour is expected to improve relations, and Washington, where it will align well with the Biden administration’s priorities.

But domestically, it’s clear that the Tory Party is leaving Labour with a deep hole that will not be easy to climb out of.

On Our Radar

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet today at a leaders’ summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, a security grouping that also includes four Central Asian states, India and Pakistan, and which Moscow and Beijing increasingly see as an instrument to counter the West.

Representing 40 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of its gross domestic product, the SCO could be a potent force multiplier for both Russia and China, particularly in the context of great power competition with the United States. But as Ali Ahmadi wrote last year, it is still a work in progress, and many obstacles remain before it can realize its potential.

Brazilian police have broken up an organization that allegedly laundered 5.5 billion reais, or around $970 million, for Brazilian traffickers who smuggled cocaine from Bolivia and Colombia to Central America, where the drugs were sold to Mexican cartels.

Brazil’s main drug-trafficking organizations have steadily accumulated wealth and power in recent years, extending an ever-growing influence in the country. Now, as Constance Malleret wrote in March, there are growing signs that Brazil’s criminal groups are trying to use upcoming municipal elections to infiltrate local politics, even as Brazilian authorities struggle to keep up with the evolution of the country’s organized crime landscape.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni urged leaders of her far-right party to reject antisemitism, racism and nostalgia for totalitarian regimes after members of the party’s youth wing were caught on camera glorifying fascism. Read more about how the EU is turning a blind eye to Meloni’s extremist domestic agenda in this briefing by John Boyce from last week.

Clashes earlier this week in Mauritania between police and demonstrators protesting the outcome of last week’s presidential election have left three people dead, AP reports. President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani easily won re-election in the voting, but as Hassan Ould Moctar wrote Monday, his victory concealed the accelerating reconfiguration of the country’s political opposition.