The sidewalks were lined with smiling supporters brandishing Union Jacks, the roar of helicopters thrummed incessantly through London's rainy skies, the rows of TV cameras from all over the world were focused on the entrance to 10 Downing Street: At noon on Friday, July 5, for his first address to the nation outside of this iconic location, which he must have been dreaming of for the past few months, Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom's 58th prime minister, was treated to the classic ceremony of a British change of government. Moreover, there was the added excitement of Labour returning to power, after 14 long years in opposition, thanks to a historic victory that has granted them a parliamentary majority almost as massive as former prime minister Tony Blair's was in 1997.
"For too long now we have turned a blind eye as millions slid into greater insecurity. Nurses, builders, drivers, carers, people doing the right thing, working harder than ever, have been recognized at moments like this before. Yet as soon as the cameras stop rolling, their lives are ignored. I want to say very clearly to those people – not this time. (...) I invite you all to join this government of service in the mission of national renewal. Our work is urgent. And we begin it today," declared Starmer, 61, in the firm, serious tone to which the British have grown accustomed to hearing from him. After transforming the Labour Party, disciplining it and unifying it as he drew it toward the center in order to seize power, the civil rights lawyer, who went into politics only nine years ago, was keen to show that he intends to get down to work straight away, so as not to let down the electorate's trust.
In the UK, governments get up and running within hours of their leader receiving official confirmation from the country's monarch. Starmer had visited King Charles III at Buckingham Palace at midday that day. The first appointments to his cabinet commenced shortly before 3 pm. For the key positions – foreign affairs, home affairs, finance and health – Starmer simply confirmed the appointments of those ministers in his shadow cabinet who had been working on these matters for months. This cabinet – whose chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), Rachel Reeves, is a woman, for the first time in UK history – is characterized by the modest social backgrounds of an unusually large number of its members.
Angela Rayner, 44, the deputy prime minister, had a complicated childhood, caring for her mother who suffered from major depressive episodes. She left school at the age of 16, pregnant and without any qualifications. This charismatic woman, positioned on the left of the Labour party, began her career as a social worker for her local council in the Manchester suburbs, before rising through the ranks of her labor union and then being elected to the House of Commons. Rayner will also be responsible for housing affairs, and is one of the few ministers with this portfolio to have actually lived in social housing.
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