Keir Starmer on Friday promised to “rebuild Britain” as he took office as the UK’s new prime minister following his centre-left Labour party’s landslide general election victory that ended 14 years of Conservative rule.
Head of state King Charles III asked Starmer to form a government during a meeting at Buckingham Palace, officially appointing the 61-year-old former human rights lawyer as prime minister.
Flag-waving crowds of cheering Labour activists lined Downing Street as Starmer arrived as the party’s first prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010.
“Now, our country has voted decisively for change, for national renewal and a return of politics to public service,” he said in his first speech in the role.
“The work of change begins immediately, but have no doubt, we will rebuild Britain.”
A sombre Rishi Sunak conceded defeat during a torrid night for his Conservatives that claimed the scalps of at least 12 of his senior Cabinet colleagues — and his predecessor Liz Truss.
Truss’s disastrous 49-day tenure effectively sealed the Tories’ fate with the public two years ago, when her unfunded tax cuts spooked markets and crashed the pound.
Before leaving Downing Street for the final time as prime minister, Sunak said “sorry” to the public and that he would step down as Tory leader once formal arrangements for a successor are in place.
Labour raced past the 326 seats needed to secure an overall majority in the 650-seat House of Commons at 0400 GMT, with the final result expected on Saturday.
As of 1200 GMT on Friday, the party had won 412 seats in the House of Commons with only two results left to declare, giving it a majority of more than 170.
The Tories won just 121 seats — a record low — with the right-wing vote apparently spliced by Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party.
In another boost for the centrists, the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats ousted the Scottish National Party as the third-biggest party.
