While much of Europe embraces hard-right parties, the UK has swung wildly to the left. Here’s why

LONDON — A somewhat strange and ironic political shift has gripped Europe over the last few years.

In the formerly Brexiting, euroskeptic U.K., the pendulum has just swung back to the center-left Labour Party, which comes to power after a mammoth election win, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

A different picture is playing out in much of western Europe — and in countries that disdained Brexit and the U.K.'s populist trend in recent years over the last decade or so. These states are now seeing their own electorates shift to the right, with nationalist, populist and euroskeptic parties riding high in voter polls and entering the corridors of power.

While the U.K. and mainland Europe are heading in different directions politically, analysts say that the driving force behind changing patterns at the polls is fundamentally the same: voters are desperate for change.

"There's an anti-incumbency mood again in Europe," Dan Stevens, professor of politics at Exeter University, told CNBC. No matter who the incumbent is, Stevens said, "there's just a general dissatisfaction andwant for change."

Tapping into the zeitgeist among British voters, the U.K.'s Labour Party used "change" as its rallying cry for voters ahead of Thursday's general election, which it won with a landslide.

The shift to the left comes after a tumultuous period in British politics during the last series of Conservative governments, with immigration concerns and euroskepticism culminating in the 2016 referendum to leave the EU. More challenges followed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and a cost-of-living crisis. By the time the British election was called, Brits were just fed up, analysts said.

The U.K. is not alone in looking for a political