London — When Keir Starmer was elected leader of the British Labour Party in 2020, just after the party suffered its worst general election defeat in 85 years, he made it his mission to make the party electable again. Four years later, after 14 years of governments led by the rival Conservative Party, Starmer was ready Friday morning to take over as Britain’s leader.
With almost the entire finale Results, Labour Party won The Conservatives won 411 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons of the British Parliament. The Conservatives held only 120, a massive loss of support for the party that won the last election in 2019.
Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has acknowledged his wrongdoing, saying voters had delivered a “sobering verdict” on his Conservative Party, which has seen its long-standing parliamentary majority eviscerated.
Starmer, 61, has faced years of criticism for his lack of charisma, but his methodical mission to return Labour to the center of British politics and broaden its appeal to voters has paid off. Starmer and Labour have also, arguably, capitalized on years of economic hardship and political chaos under the Conservatives.
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Starmer will take the reins of government with a herculean task ahead, as the British people’s overall trust in politicians is at an all-time low, a record number of children in the UK are living in poverty, and his party and the Conservatives struggle to manage growing support for a far-right, anti-immigrant political trend that is taking root across Europe.
What happens next?
The final results of Thursday’s vote were still being released Friday morning, but Starmer will be Britain’s next prime minister.
Sunak was due to stand outside the prime minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street in London and make a statement confirming his departure, before meeting King Charles III to formally present his resignation.
Starmer will then meet the king at Buckingham Palace, who will take the necessary but largely ceremonial step of inviting the party leader to form a new government. Starmer will then deliver his own speech outside Downing Street.
Once the formalities are completed, Starmer will receive briefings from key members of the civil service and intelligence community, select members of his new cabinet and begin taking phone calls from world leaders.
He will then have to tackle the often unglamorous task of running the country.
Where is Keir Starmer from?
Sir Keir Starmer – the former barrister knighted for his services to criminal justice – has, during years of chaos (you may remember Partygate, or perhaps even Prime Minister Liz Truss’s less than 50 days in office), projected an almost dull managerialism that seems to have become a beacon for a welcome return to political normality.
Starmer grew up in a small town in Surrey, just outside London. His mother worked for the National Health Service, the UK’s free public healthcare system, and his father was a toolmaker – a fact Starmer repeated so often on the campaign trail that it became a even.
His mother suffered from Still’s disease, a form of inflammatory arthritis, throughout her life and died just weeks after being elected to the British Parliament in 2015. His father died three years later. Starmer said his relationship with his father was strained and that never telling him “I love and respect you” was “the only thing I regret”.
Starmer was the first in his family to go to university, after which he helped run a left-wing magazine called Socialist Alternatives. He later became a barrister, rising through the ranks to become head of public prosecutions in 2008, heading the British government’s Crown Prosecution Service. He was knighted in 2014, the year before he entered politics.
Despite his proven track record in tackling serious crime, Starmer has never managed to shake off the image of a relatively boring politician. He has even taken an interest in it at times.
“If, at the end of the day, that’s the only thing left to say, then I’m pretty comfortable,” he told Britain’s ITV in January. “If you’re called boring, you’ve won.”
What are Keir Starmer’s policies?
Throughout his tenure as Labour leader, Starmer has tried to make his party more electable by forcing out individuals seen as entrenched in his socialist left wing – the faction that led the party under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn (whose cabinet Starmer was in, by the way).
After Corbyn called the findings of an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party “dramatically exaggerated”, Starmer suspended him.
“Sometimes you have to be ruthless to be a good leader,” Starmer told Esquire of the episode.
His public mantra is “country before party”.
Starmer’s centrist orientation has been criticised by left-wing members of his own party and others. He has angered many by backtracking on several key promises, including that Labour would raise income tax, scrap university tuition fees and nationalise most of Britain’s public services.
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He has also been criticised for Labour’s abrupt U-turn on a green investment pledge of more than $35bn a year, and for his prevarication over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, despite his legal training.
In a recent speech, Starmer said he had a “big, bold” long-term plan for Britain. But he warned that “we need first steps”.
According to the BBC, these would include tackling tax evasion, shortening NHS patient waiting lists and recruiting more teachers and community police officers. He also wants to negotiate a better deal with the European Union, given the catastrophic economic consequences of the UK’s “economic crisis”.Brexit” . ”
He called his unvarnished election promises a “down payment” on what Labour can deliver to Britain if given enough time.
“I’m not going to make a promise before the election that I’m not sure we can actually keep,” he stressed.
“A lot of people on the left accuse him of letting them down, of betraying socialist principles. And a lot of people on the right accuse him of flip-flopping,” Tim Bale, a political scientist at Queen Mary University of London, told The Associated Press. “But hey, if that’s what it takes to win, then I think it says a lot about Starmer’s character. He will do whatever it takes — and has done whatever it takes — to get into government.”
How could Starmer influence US-UK relations?
As the UK and US election cycles coincide for the first time since 1992, there is considerable uncertainty about how US-UK relations will evolve by the end of the year.
Starmer has spoken admiringly of President Biden, particularly his emphasis on job creation and investment in domestic industry. The Economist even described him as “infatuated” with the US president.
Senior Labour figures reportedly met secretly with their Democratic counterparts before election day.
Mr Biden is therefore expected to have a close ally in Starmer — if Mr. Biden is still president in 2025.
If former President Donald Trump wins in November, US-UK relations would likely be less friendly.
Although she is conservative and therefore seemingly on the same side of the political spectrum, Trump had a difficult relationship He got on better with former Prime Minister Theresa May during her first term. He got on better with the more populist and, some say, more Trumpist Boris Johnson.
“A Biden White House would see Starmer as a benevolent man and a useful standard-bearer,” Eliot Wilson, a former senior British House of Commons official, wrote in The Hill. “To Trump, he would be a vague nuisance, and could not be relied upon to echo the MAGA movement’s wilder repertoire.”
The reality for British leaders across all parties, almost a decade after the UK left the EU, is that the much-vaunted “special relationship” with Washington has never been more vital.
“We will work with whoever is elected,” Starmer said. “We have a special relationship with the United States that goes beyond who is elected.”
