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Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a victory rally at the Tate Modern in London early on July 5, 2024. The UK's Labour Party swept to power after winning the country's general election, crossing the 326-seat threshold for a working majority in the House of Commons. Justin Tallis, AFP

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Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:900px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17202228306711720222828364.jpeg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Britain&#x27;s Labour Party leader Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a victory rally at the Tate Modern in London early on July 5, 2024. The UK&#x27;s Labour Party swept to power after winning the country&#x27;s general election, crossing the 326-seat threshold for a working majority in the House of Commons. <em>Justin Tallis, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>LONDON — Keir Starmer set to work as Britain&#x27;s new leader Friday, speaking with world leaders and appointing his ministerial team after his Labour party&#x27;s landslide general election victory ended 14 years of Conservative rule.</p><p>Starmer named Rachel Reeves the UK&#x27;s first woman finance minister and appointed David Lammy as foreign secretary following his election win to become center-left Labour&#x27;s first prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010.</p><p>Flag-waving crowds of cheering Labour activists lined Downing Street as Starmer pledged to &quot;rebuild&quot; the UK after head of state King Charles III invited him to form a government during a meeting at Buckingham Palace.</p><p>&quot;Now, our country has voted decisively for change, for national renewal and a return of politics to public service,&quot; the 61-year-old said in his first speech as PM.</p><p>&quot;The work of change begins immediately, but have no doubt, we will rebuild Britain.&quot;</p><p>Within hours, Starmer held a flurry of phone calls with leaders, including reaffirming London&#x27;s &quot;unwavering&quot; support for Kyiv&#x27;s war against invading Russian forces with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden.</p><p>He also spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the prime ministers of Canada, Italy, Ireland and Poland, alongside the heads of the UK&#x27;s devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.</p><p>Starmer and von der Leyen &quot;emphasised the importance of the unique relationship between the UK and EU&quot; in addressing shared &quot;challenges&quot;, his office said.</p><p>Meanwhile, Germany&#x27;s Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Starmer he would be a &quot;very good, very successful&quot; prime minister in a call.</p><div><strong>&#x27;Sorry&#x27;</strong></div><p>Earlier, a somber 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.</p><p>Her disastrous 49-day tenure effectively sealed the Tories&#x27; fate with the public two years ago, when her unfunded tax cuts spooked markets and crashed the pound.</p><p>Before leaving Downing Street for the final time as prime minister, Sunak said &quot;sorry&quot; to the public and revealed that he would step down as Tory leader once formal arrangements for a successor are in place.</p><p>The Tories&#x27; worst previous election result was 156 seats in 1906. Former leader William Hague told Times Radio this was &quot;a catastrophic result in historic terms&quot;.</p><p>By late Friday, Labour had won 412 constituencies in the 650-seat House of Commons — with only one result left to declare — giving it a majority of 174.</p><p>The Tories won just 121 — a record low — with the right-wing vote apparently split by Nigel Farage&#x27;s anti-immigration Reform UK party, which picked up five seats.</p><p>In another boost for the centrists, the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats ousted the Scottish National Party as the third-biggest party.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/7/5/labour-wins-uk-general-election-1604">RELATED: Labour wins UK general election</a></div><div><strong>World reaction</strong></div><p>The results bucked a trend among Britain&#x27;s closest Western allies, with the far-right in France eyeing power and Donald Trump looking set for a return in the United States.</p><p>Ex-president Trump congratulated his admirer Farage on winning election to the UK parliament at his eighth attempt, but noticeably neglected to mention Starmer.</p><p>Outside London&#x27;s busy Waterloo station, 49-year-old engagement officer Ramsey Sargent called it a &quot;momentous election&quot;.</p><p>&quot;It has been very rocky over the last few months and years. I&#x27;m really excited to see what happens next,&quot; he told AFP.</p><p>Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary, University of London, said the Conservatives&#x27; drubbing was &quot;not as catastrophic as some were predicting&quot; and that the Tories would now need to decide how best to fight back.</p><p>Brexit champion Farage has made no secret of his aim to take over the party.</p><p>&quot;There is a massive gap on the center-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,&quot; he said after a comfortable win in Clacton, eastern England.</p><p>Labour&#x27;s resurgence is a stunning turnaround from five years ago, when hard-left former leader Jeremy Corbyn took the party to its worst defeat since 1935 in an election dominated by Brexit.</p><p>Starmer took over in early 2020 and set about moving the party back to the centre, purging the infighting and anti-Semitism that cost it support.</p><p>Opinion polls consistently put Labour 20 points ahead of the Tories since Truss&#x27;s resignation, giving an air of inevitability about a Labour win — the first since Tony Blair in 2005.</p><p>But as the count neared the end, the gap was around 11 percent, with Labour looking set to win fewer votes than it did in 2019, partly reflecting a lower turnout.</p><p>Starmer faces a daunting in-tray, from anemic economic growth to overstretched and underfunded public services and households squeezed financially.</p><p>He has promised a return of political integrity, after a chaotic period of five Tory prime ministers in 14 years, scandal and sleaze.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PUbRdnb9-fQ?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The results bucked a trend among Britain's closest Western allies, with the far-right in France eyeing power and Donald Trump looking set for a return in the United States.</p>

The results bucked a trend among Britain's closest Western allies, with the far-right in France eyeing power and Donald Trump looking set for a return in the United States.

UK's new PM Starmer speaks to world leaders, names top team

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UK's new PM Starmer speaks to world leaders, names top team

Agence France-Presse

Published Jul 06, 2024 07:47 AM PHT

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United Kingdom

Labour Party

Keir Starmer

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