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The Labour leader was appointed head of government on Friday July 5, after his centre-left party won a landslide victory in the legislative elections on Thursday.
This is the man who is ending 14 years of Conservative rule. On the steps of Downing Street in London, UK, Keir Starmer is savouring the moment. Voters have turned the map of the UK from blue to red. The new Prime Minister has cured his party of chronic defeat.This is how we will govern: country first and party second” he said, before promising change to voters.
He has indeed changed his own camp. In four years, he has shifted to the center and renounced certain markers of the left, such as taxing the richest, to the point of sometimes being described as a conservative.
The son of a nurse and a worker, he became one of the Prime Ministers with the most modest origins. A former lawyer, his smooth and austere image led to him being caricatured as Buzz Lightyear for his physical resemblance, but also for his serious and robotic side. After 20 months in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak, struggling in the polls, had tried a poker move by calling the elections several months in advance.