While the U.S. has to continue fretting over who will win the presidential election until November, the U.K. has already gone and got itself a new prime minister. In an ironic twist given the date’s importance across the Atlantic, July 4 saw Britain elect itself a new leader in the form of Labour’s Keir Starmer, whose party won in a landslide victory over the Conservatives. Starmer is now the first non-Conservative prime minister since 2010.
Starmer faced some fierce competition on his way to 10 Downing Street, however. Though he eventually came out on top, Starmer ran for re-election for his position as MP of London’s Holborn & St. Pancras constituency against some seriously formidable foes — namely, a six-foot Elmo and a guy in a giant hat.
Specifically, Bobby “Elmo” Smith, an independent candidate who appeared at the voting count dressed in costume as the furry Sesame Street character, and Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, a member of the infamous Monster Raving Loony Party. As is common, Starmer gave his victory speech upon finding out he had become prime minister alongside his fellow candidates, which meant he had to deliver this historic oration while standing next to a Big Bird-sized Elmo.
In a twist that even Oscar in his trash-can could’ve seen coming, Elmo’s presence at Starmer’s big moment has entirely overshadowed the fresh PM’s rise to power. Because, honestly, we’ve had six prime minister in 14 years but none of them have battled an actual Muppet before (Boris Johnson looked like a Muppet, but still).
19 votes ain’t nothing!
“In this room here beats the heart of our democracy, and his name is Elmo!”
A gracious loser, that’s what we like to see. Donald Trump could never.
Speaking of whom, Election Elmo is clearly what makes U.K. elections special and what the U.S. is missing out on.
What’s the biggest downside of a two-party system? Two words for you: No. Elmo.
Elmo had a rough night after the votes came in…
When you come down to it, that is perhaps the ultimate difference between U.K. and U.S. politics. One of them allows preschool TV characters to run for office. The other allows those with the brains of a preschool TV character to run for office.
This U.K. election was brought to us by the letter “E.” We wait with bated breath to see if the U.S. election will be brought to us by the letter “B” or “T.”