Officially Keir Starmer has taken the reins as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 14 years of Conservative rule, as he vows change to recover the British economy.
Starmer, 61, was appointed PM by King Charles III after he led the Labour Party to a landslide win over the Conservatives in Thursday’s general elections.
Starmer received the blessing of King Charles III to form a government in the ‘kissing of hands’ ceremony, along with a photo of the occasion that served as the official announcement of Starmer’s new title.
He will now head to take up his new residence at 10 Downing Street. The centre-left Labour won a massive majority in the 650-seat parliament, winning 412 seats so far.
The Conservatives led by outgoing premier Rishi Sunak suffered the worst performance in the party’s long history, with 121 seats, as voters punished them for a cost of living crisis, failing public services, and a series of scandals.
‘We did it’, Starmer said in a victory speech. ‘Change begins now. We said we would end the chaos, and we will, we said we would turn the page, and we have. Today, we start the next chapter, begin the work of change, the mission of national renewal and start to rebuild our country’.
Sunak described Starmer as a decent, public-spirited man in his farewell speech before resigning as the PM and Conservative leader after suffering a massive defeat.
Before Labour could cross the majority mark, Sunak conceded defeat and called up his Labour rival to congratulate him on the election victory. Starmer will be credited with achieving an impressive reversal of fortunes for Labour after a crushing election defeat in December 2019, when the Conservatives were led by Boris Johnson.
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