The United Kingdom’s decision to hand the center-left Labour Party a parliamentary majority, according to the exit poll, comes at the same time Europe is broadly in the grip of what some call a right-wing populist surge.

"This French election is a wake-up call for European leaders. It's time to take action to tackle deindustrialisation, under-investment and households' energy bills, which have risen due to a costly dependence on imports of gas, oil and coal," said Neil Makaroff, director of the European think-tank Strategic Perspectives.

What the Conservatives cannot do is continue with its current policy of aping Reform-style policies while insisting the party itself is beyond the pale. The Conservatives must pick either political murder or merger.

After 14 years of Conservative rule, Britons elected a new prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Parliament dominated by the Labour Party, which hadn't won a national election since Tony Blair, nearly 20 years.

The Brexiting, euroskeptic and anti-immigrant U.K. we've seen in recent years has swung back to the center left. Many nations in western Europe are meanwhile now seeing their own electorates shift to the hard right,