More than 5,000 days have passed since Labour was last in Government. But Keir Starmer wasted no time in laying down the first tentative steps towards change yesterday as he selected his cabinet and assured voters he would begin to rebuild trust with a ‘country-first, party-second’ brand of politics.
As outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left Number 10, Sir Keir arrived with an invitation from the King to form a new government. He thanked Mr Sunak for his ‘dedication and hard work’, and commended his ‘achievement as the first British Asian Prime Minister of our country’.
The focus soon turned to the need for change, a ‘renewal and a return of politics to public service’. Sir Keir insisted he would prove to voters that politics ‘can be a force for good’ but acknowledged it would ‘take a while’ to ‘change’ the country. ‘But I have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately,’ the 61-year-old said.
Indeed, by Friday evening, reports emerged that the Tory flagship ‘Rwanda scheme’ was effectively ”dead’—consistent with Labour’s promises to scrap it if elected. Britain is still expected to pay various fees associated with the treaty but reserves the right to leave with three months’ notice. Kigali is expected to comment as early as Saturday.
The appointments of ministers came next. The first female chancellor of the UK was Rachel Reeves. Additionally, David Lammy became Foreign Secretary and Yvette Cooper laterally moved into the position of Home Secretary.
Despite having previously shadowed the position, veteran Labour MP Emily Thornberry was passed over when Sir Keir named Richard Hermer KC as Attorney General.
The new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, fulfilled a promise made in June to reach out to junior doctors ‘on day one’, setting in motion a path for negotiations over pay and conditions with the aim of getting the NHS back on its feet. Mr Streeting was ready to admit ‘the NHS is broken’ and admitted change would not come immediately – but was optimistic about Labour’s ability to oversee substantial reform.
As the new cabinet began laying the groundwork for the party’s vision of change, Sir Keir spoke with world leaders, who congratulated his appointment as the 58th Prime Minister. French President Emmanuel Macron revealed he had already spoken to the Labour leader on Thursday night in a congratulatory message on Twitter/X.
Reiterating his government’s support for Kyiv’s struggle against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Sir Keir spoke over the phone with US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenky in a matter of hours.
Following Labour’s overwhelming victory in the general election on Thursday night, Sir Keir made his historic first address as the 58th Prime Minister. He and his wife, Lady Victoria, then vanished inside Number 10 to be greeted by Downing Street personnel.
Soon after, smiling faces emerged from the building as the Prime Minister appointed his top team of ministers.
Rachel Reeves became Britain’s first female Chancellor, while David Lammy was appointed the new Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper the new Home Secretary, and Wes Streeting the new Health Secretary.
All of them enjoyed introductory tours of their new Whitehall departments as they met with officials. But they were also immediately challenged by the myriad of crises they will have to battle over the coming weeks and months.
Union bosses this evening demanded Mr Streeting come forward with a ‘credible’ offer to end the junior doctors’ dispute on pay, as they eye a 35 per cent wage hike.
Mr Streeting faces major challenges overhauling the NHS with the junior doctors’ pay dispute still haunting the service and technological inefficiency a recurring complaint from insiders – but experts say his previous comments indicate he may be the man for the job.
Mr Lammy vowed to support an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza after witnessing an election backlash in some parts of the country over Labour’s stance on the Middle East conflict.
In a speech to Treasury staff, Ms Reeves promised to boost Britain’s economic growth as her ‘central mission’.
And Ms Cooper pledged to set up a new ‘Border Security Command’ to tackle the Channel migrant crisis, as she prepares to scrap the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme.
Labour insiders told The Telegraph on Friday the plan was effectively ‘dead’ – but Ms Cooper assured one of the first duties of government was to ‘keep our borders secure’ through the security forces.
‘If Rishi Sunak thought Rwanda would work, he wouldn’t have called an election,’ the source told the newspaper. ‘It was a con. By calling an election, Sunak was acknowledging that fact.’
Sir Keir made two eye-catching ministerial appointments this evening as he drafted in Sir Patrick Vallance, who was the Government’s chief scientific adviser during the Covid crisis, as a science minister.
Additionally, he appointed James Timpson, the CEO of his father’s Timpson’s shoe repair enterprise, to the position of minister of parole, probation, and prisons. The new PM has bestowed peerages upon him and Sir Patrick.
However, Emily Thornberry had no position in Sir Keir’s new administration.
She was passed over for the job of Attorney General in favour of Richard Hermer KC, who was also granted a peerage, despite her having served as the opposition’s shadow AG.
It comes after Ms Thornberry embarrassed Sir Keir by acknowledging that Labour’s proposal to tax private school tuition may result in larger class sizes in the public sector during the general election campaign.
Sir Keir made his Cabinet appointments after earlier stepping through the entrance to No10 as the new Labour premier with a vow to ‘immediately’ begin work to ‘rebuild Britain’ after winning a huge majority.
Following his first speech to the country as the new premier, the Labour leader was greeted with applause by the personnel inside the renowned black door as he entered with his wife Victoria.
The 61-year-old acknowledged ‘weariness at the heart of the nation’ after his so-called ‘loveless landslide’ in the general election, which saw Labour win more than 400 seats having received barely one in three votes across the UK.
Among their demands to Mr Streeting, the British Medical Association said the junior doctors’ dispute ‘must be brought to an end via a credible Government offer’.
They offered the Health Secretary hope of a possible resolution as they conceded that ‘pay restoration doesn’t have to be in one go’.
Labour cannot afford the BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent wage increase for junior doctors, Mr Streeting has already warned.
The Health Secretary later announced he had spoken to BMA bosses and ‘talks to end their industrial action will begin next week’.
In a statement shared on Friday, the British Medical Association trade union for doctors opened the door to future negotiations, showing promising signs.
Professor Philip Banfield, BMA chair of the council, said in a statement that he had offered Mr Streeting to ‘work together to get the NHS back on its feet’ with the aim of resolving disputes, writing down waiting lists and improving the service for both staff and patients.
‘We have heard your commitment to pay restoration as a journey and put our faith in your intentions to work together towards a resolution,’ Professor Banfield said in an optimistic letter.’
Labour won a lot of seats in the general election in Britain, but they also lost several old bastions to independent candidates running on pro-Gaza platforms.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow minister, was shocked to lose his seat in Leicester South, which he had previously won with a majority of more than 22,000 votes.
Speaking to broadcasters after being appointed as Foreign Secretary, Mr Lammy said: ‘All of us recognise the agony of communities who have seen the scenes coming out of Israel and Gaza.
‘But the job now is to get to work with tireless diplomacy to support an immediate ceasefire and move towards getting those hostages out.’
Ms Reeves, a self-confessed ‘geek’ and schoolgirl chess champion, is one of Sir Keir’s closest allies and will be the first woman to lead the Treasury in its 1,000-year history.
The new Chancellor told her new department’s staff that the Labour Government would work ‘hand in glove with business’ as she vowed its ‘central mission’ would be to boost economic growth.
In a swipe at her Tory predecessors, Ms Reeves also pledged to change the ‘uncertainty’ and lack of ‘clarity of political purpose’ Treasury staff had previously had to endure.
Ms Cooper also blasted the Conservatives’ record as she spoke outside the Home Office, saying: ‘We know there are a lot of challenges ahead and after 14 years there is some difficult legacy that we will inherit, and we know that that will mean hard graft and not gimmicks ahead in order to tackle that.’
She added that setting up a ‘new Border Security Command to go after the criminal boat gangs’ would be among her ‘first steps’ as Home Secretary.
Angela Rayner was the first arrival in Downing Street before being named Deputy Prime Minister.
She was also appointed Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary as she was handed a portfolio focused on her party’s planned housebuilding blitz.
Ms Rayner was later followed into Downing Street by Mr Lammy, Ms Cooper and John Healey. They were duly appointed Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary, respectively.
Sir Keir made an almost wholesale transfer of the shadow team he had in opposition into his Cabinet following Labour’s massive general election victory.
Ed Miliband returned to ministerial office as Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary. Mr Streeting was chosen as Health Secretary, Shabana Mahmood became Justice Secretary, and Bridget Phillipson was designated Education Secretary.
The former Labour leader is set to oversee his party’s promise to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid by 2030.
Sir Keir also appointed Liz Kendall as the Secretary for Work and Pensions, Jonathan Reynolds as the Secretary for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle as the Secretary for Science, Innovation, and Technology, and Louise Haigh as the Secretary for Transport.
Sir Keir moved to replace the post vacated by Thangam Debbonaire, who had shadowed the portfolio in opposition but was not re-elected to the House of Commons, by appointing Lisa Nandy as Culture Secretary.
Jo Stevens was designated Welsh Secretary, Hilary Benn was named Northern Ireland Secretary, Ian Murray was named Scottish Secretary, and Steve Reed was made Environment Secretary.
Speaking after she was appointed Chancellor, Ms Reeves posted on X: ‘Economic growth was the Labour Party’s mission. It is now a national mission. Let’s get to work.’
She added: ‘To every young girl and woman reading this, let today show that there should be no limit to your ambitions.’
In her first address to Treasury staff, Ms Reeves vowed to change the ‘uncertainty’ and lack of ‘clarity of political purpose’ from her Tory predecessors.
She told them: ‘I know that a lot has been asked of you in the last few years – and I know, when the chips are down, staff at the Treasury have risen to the occasion, from furlough to energy price support.
‘I have often disagreed with the political choices that have been taken in this building. But I have never been in any doubt about the talent, the dedication and the professionalism that Treasury staff have displayed.
‘I know too that at times it must have been frustrating for you, working under a weight of uncertainty, changes in direction, and without clarity of political purpose. As Chancellor, I am determined to change that.’
Mr Lammy, an ardent Remainer who once compared Tory Brexiteers to Nazis, described being appointed as Foreign Secretary as ‘the honour of my life’.
He added: ‘The world faces huge challenges, but we will navigate them with the UK’s enormous strengths.
‘We will reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home.’
Speaking to reporters later, Mr Lammy said he wants to see an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza.
‘All of us recognise the agony of communities who have seen the scenes coming out of Israel and Gaza,’ he told broadcasters.
‘But the job now is to get to work with tireless diplomacy to support an immediate ceasefire and move towards getting those hostages out.’
A throng of ecstatic Labour members had previously applauded Sir Keir’s entry into Downing Street following his official installation by King Charles as the 58th Prime Minister of Britain.
He and Victoria received a rapturous welcome after returning from the Palace where he had an audience with His Majesty around noon, shortly after Rishi Sunak exited having tendered his resignation.
Sir Keir said he wanted to ‘change the country’ but warned it would ‘take a while’, saying he wanted to restore the values of ‘service’ to politics. He admitted that many people did not believe he would improve the country.
‘My government will fight every day until you believe again,’ he said.
At Buckingham Palace, the couple were welcomed by the King and Queen’s principal private secretary Sir Clive Alderton, along with Charles’s equerry Royal Navy Commander William Thornton.
They left 20 minutes later to head to Downing Street after Sir Keir was appointed to the job.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement: ‘The King received in Audience The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer MP today and requested him to form a new Administration.
‘Sir Keir accepted His Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.’
This is great news for Sir Keir Starmer, but it’s early days yet, and we have no idea what he will be up to behind the scenes. Let’s hope doesn’t continue to allow thousands more people into our country with full access to the NHS, all free, yet we natives have to pay for it.
British individuals are unable to find a dentist in their local region; some have to go further, and even then, there is no availability. People are having to pay a fortune to go to the dentist because they can’t get on the NHS register or have to wait months before being accepted, and now many dentists won’t even consider the NHS, not even for young children. These children’s teeth are rotten before they should be, and our government doesn’t care.
We simply don’t have the infrastructure to support the number of people coming into our country – it’s not fair on us and it’s not fair on them. They could put billions into the NHS but it wouldn’t make any difference, not if immigration is not controlled.
Labour is already pandering to the Islamists in Gaza through Lammy and Mahmood. This isn’t the way to build up the trust of the people, far from it, and they will probably continue to allow thousands in because they see them as future Labour voters, and they probably have no intention of repairing the damage to the NHS. Saying that Starmer will fix this is probably further from the truth – Mickey Mouse might do though!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 