UK legislative elections: Labour in power

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 United Kingdom from blue to red. The new Prime Minister has just cured his party of chronic defeat. “This is how we will govern: country first and party second,” he declared, before promising voters change. He has indeed changed his own camp. In four years, he has shifted to the centre and abandoned 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.