Summary
On his first full day as prime minister Keir Starmer, held his first cabinet meeting at Downing Street where he told his assembled ministers: “We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work”. Starmer later told journalists: “I had the opportunity to set out [to] my cabinet precisely what I expect of them in terms of standards, delivery and the trust that the country has put in them.” He also said he was proud to have cabinet ministers who “didn’t have the easiest of starts in life” and reflect the “aspiration” at the heart of Britain.
In his first press conference, Starmer announced that he would be setting off tomorrow to visit all four nations of the United Kingdom, saying “we clearly on Thursday got a mandate from all four nations”. He said his plan is to visit Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland and then Wales before returning to England. Later on Tuesday next week, Starmer will set off for Washington to attend the Nato summit.
Starmer labelled the previous government’s Rwanda scheme a “gimmick” which was “dead and buried before it started”. Speaking to the media in Downing Street, Starmer said the Rwanda scheme had “never been a deterrent”.
The results for the final seat in the 2024 general election have come in, with Liberal Democrat Angus MacDonald winning Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire and becoming the sixth Liberal Democrat MP in Scotland. Drew Hendry of the SNP conceded the seat with MacDonald 2,160 votes ahead.
The overall turnout for the general election was the lowest it has been for more than 20 years. Just 59.9% of the population voted, a sharp decrease from the 67.3% that voted at the 2019 election. It was the worst turnout at a general election since 2001, when just 59.4% showed up to the polls – the lowest since before World War II.
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor who previously ran as a Tory leadership hopeful, has ruled himself out of the race, telling GB News that the “time has passed”.
The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week. The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.
Nigel Farage said his aim is to “build a mass movement for real change leading up to the next sets of elections”. Speaking from Wyldecrest sports country club in Essex on Saturday, the Reform UK leader said: “We will do what we can with five in parliament, what I will do for certain is provide real opposition in the country.”
Tory grandees including David Cameron are pushing back against the idea of a swift Conservative leadership contest, saying they want the candidates to be tested. Prospective candidates, including Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, Priti Patel, and Victoria Atkins, are among the long list of names believed to be preparing possible bids.
Some of Rishi Sunak’s closest allies are facing an angry backlash after being awarded honours by the former prime minister, despite their apparent role in the “insane” decision to call an early election. The former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith were singled out by angry candidates and aides for their role in the “cataclysmic defeat” that several sources claimed had been made worse by the early election decision.
Seven MPs won their seat at the general election by a majority of under 100, PA news agency is reporting.
David Pinto-Duschinsky, Labour MP for Hendon in north London, had the smallest majority of just 15 votes. Neil Duncan-Jordan, Labour MP for Poole in Dorset, had a majority of 18, while Conservative party chairman Richard Holden, MP for Basildon and Billericay in Essex, had a majority of 20.
Sam Carling, Labour MP for Cambridgeshire North West won by a majority of 39 and Mel Stride, Conservative MP for Devon Central won by 61 votes. In Havant in Hampshire, Conservative MP Alan Mak won by 92 while James McMurdock, Reform MP for Basildon South and East Thurrock in Essex, won by 98.
Twenty MPs won with majorities of under 500, but eight MPS won with majorities over 20,000. Peter Dowd, Labour MP for Bootle in Merseyside, had the largest majority of the election, with 21,983. He is followed by Catherine West, the Labour MP for Hornsey & Friern Barnet in north London who won by 21,475, and Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria who won by 21,472.
Keir Starmer is set to visit Edinburgh tomorrow, kicking off his tour of the UK to meet with the heads of the devolved governments, PA news agency is reporting.
Speaking ahead of his visit, Starmer said: “Our UK government will place Scotland back at the beating heart of everything we do.
“To the people of Scotland, my message is simple and clear: You are at the heart of how we unleash prosperity across the country. We will rebuild a strong Scotland at the forefront of our decade of national renewal.
“My offer to the Scottish government is the same. We can turn disagreement into co-operation and, through meaningful co-operation and a genuine seat at the table, deliver change for a generation.”
Starmer spoke with Scotland’s first minister John Swinney in a phone call Friday night in which Swinney congratulated the prime minister and committed to working co-operatively with the UK government on “areas of mutual interest”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “He committed to working collaboratively and co-operatively with the UK Government on areas of mutual interest.
“The first minister has outlined his priorities in government and believes there are many ways in which the two governments can work together to deliver progress on them for the benefit of people in Scotland.”
Here’s a look at how the UK voted, in map form:
Your new-look United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/Thn7GHpKzf
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) July 6, 2024
Voter turnout in general election the lowest it's been since 2001
The overall turnout for the general election was the lowest it has been for more than 20 years, PA new agency is reporting.
The overall turnout was 59.9%, a sharp decrease from the 67.3% that voted at the 2019 election.
It was the worst turnout at a general election since 2001, when just 59.4% showed up to the polls – the lowest since before World War II.
Turnout remained above 75% at every post-war general election until 1970, when it fell to 72.0%. It stayed above 70% until plunging in 2001, and has never risen above 70% since then.
The highest turnout at a general election since the war was in 1950, when 83.9% voted.
New Northern Ireland secretary pledges to establish new relationship between UK government and Stormont
Following a meeting with Northern Ireland’s first and deputy ministers Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, Hilary Benn, the new Northern Ireland secretary, said his priority is to establish a new relationship between the UK government and Stormont’s powersharing executive.
Benn said: “I wanted to get to work as quickly as possible and was therefore pleased to be able to hold these initial discussions with the first and deputy first ministers and representatives from the other parties.
“My immediate priorities are to establish a new relationship between the UK Government and the Northern Ireland executive as we work together to foster economic growth and prosperity, and to improve public services.
“I want to ensure that we have a system in place for addressing the legacy of the past in a way that wins support from victims’ families and that all communities can have confidence in, and which is compliant with human rights.”
Benn has served as the shadow Northern Ireland secretary since 2023 and was chairman of the Brexit Select Committee for years. Both he and Keir Starmer have said that a Labour government would repeal the Legacy Act that was introduced by the Tories to address Troubles legacy issues and widely opposed by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland.
Benn said the new government was firmly committed to the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. “We will work hard to deliver its vision for reconciliation, equality, respect for rights and parity of esteem,” he said.
Updated
It’s a very late call – only 44 hours after the polls closed – but Angus MacDonald has won the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat, becoming the sixth Liberal Democrat MP in Scotland.
Drew Hendry of the SNP conceded the seat with MacDonald 2,160 votes ahead.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “My heart is in the Highlands today. The Liberal Democrats were all but wiped out in 2015, but that wasn’t the worst thing to happen to us that year. Weeks later we lost Charles Kennedy.
“That the final act of this general election should see his old seat returned to Lib Dem hands and the care of Angus MacDonald is simply wonderful.
“I’m overjoyed that Angus has become the sensational sixth Scottish Liberal Democrat MP.”
Friday’s seismic general election result in one illuminating graph, which shows that almost half of all parliamentary seats changed hands between 2019 and 2024. The only postwar result close to that was in 1945.
To put the scale of last Thursday's election into perspective, the number of seats changing hands at each post-war election. In 2024, 303 seats (47%) switched party relative to 2019, 65% more than in 1997. pic.twitter.com/Mtbpl29bxH
— Dylan Difford (@Dylan_Difford) July 6, 2024
Former junior minister Stuart Andrew announced as interim Tory chief whip
Rishi Sunak has appointed former junior minister Stuart Andrew as interim Tory chief whip, replacing Simon Hart, who lost his seat in Thursday’s election.
“I am delighted to have been appointed as Opposition chief whip,” Andrew, a former deputy chief whip, told PA news agency.
“I know there will be much frustration within the party about the disappointing election results we saw this week. Our focus now more than ever must be to come together as a united party.
“We will be ready and willing to provide the strong and effective Opposition to the government that the British public deserves.”
Ministers outlined priorities while PM set expectations at first cabinet meeting
No 10 has released a readout from Keir Starmer’s first cabinet meeting today, in which ministers outlined their priorities and Starmer set expectations.
He began the meeting by saying the cabinet had been appointed “on merit” and “with a commitment to public”. He said the government needed a reset in public life that ensures “the highest standards of integrity and honesty” – and that he expects his ministers to hold themselves and their departments to those standards.
Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor of the exchequer, highlighted “stability, investment and reform” as pillars of economic growth, and noted that the government wants to achieve economic growth for a purpose – to raise living standards and make working people better off.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said becoming a “clean energy superpower” would deliver energy independence and cut bills while health secretary Wes Streeting vowed to “return to an NHS that is there when people need it”.
Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister and levelling up secretary, said that the government would reset relationships with regional metro mayors, starting with a meeting she and Starmer would hold Tuesday.
Meanwhile, home secretary Yvette Cooper said delivering more neighbourhood police, tackling knife crime and launching a new border security command would be “an immediate priority” while foreign Secretary David Lammy said that “forging strong relations abroad would help to support the Government’s mission delivery here at home”.
Updated
With his first cabinet meeting, first press conference and first day as prime minister behind him, Keir Starmer turns his attention to the country’s other big contest this week: the England vs Switzerland match in the Euros quarter final.
You’ve got this @England 🏴 https://t.co/UCIyTwTWrg
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 6, 2024
Shabana Mahmood posted on X that walking into the ministry of justice as the new justice secretary was “the greatest honour” of her life.
The greatest honour of my life to walk into @MoJGovUK as the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice yesterday.
— Shabana Mahmood (@ShabanaMahmood) July 6, 2024
Before politics, I was a lawyer. I understand the deep challenges facing our justice system. But there is so much we can do. The hard work starts now. pic.twitter.com/38HwhZZRi2
Read more on the new Cabinet here:
In Keir Starmer’s first press conference as prime minister, “the slightly tense Labour leader of the election trail was replaced by a more obviously affable figure”, writes The Guardian’s Peter Walker.
Perhaps most notable of all was how relaxed it all felt. The argument has been made that while Starmer may not be the most natural campaigning politician, he is comfortable running a big organisation. And here it showed.
The slightly tense Labour leader of the election trail was replaced by a more obviously affable figure who made jokes about his wife working for the NHS – “as I may have mentioned” – and called TV reporters to ask questions by their first name only.
Of course, few things in politics are better for the mood than winning a landslide election victory. But this felt like a leader who believes that even with the magnitude of his Commons majority not matched by the popular vote, he has the mandate and the time to enact his programme.
The Observer’s Tim Adams has an analysis of Liz Truss’s last minutes of her time in office as an MP, which he described as “clumsily inept as much of the previous 14 years of vapid careerism”.
Her victorious Labour opponent, Terry Jermy, gave a heartfelt speech about his win, and the stage seemed set for Truss to offer some kind of response, or explanation, or at least the traditional thank you to tellers and supporters. She looked panicky for half a moment, perhaps with this thought in mind, before scuttling away ungraciously.
Afterwards I asked the velvet-breeched high sheriff who had conducted the announcement if Truss had indicated that she wanted to speak. “No,” he said. “I think she just wasn’t sure which way to get off the stage.”
The new cabinet has been getting a lot of attention for having the highest number of state-educated and female ministers in history, with Keir Starmer saying at his press conference that he was proud that his cabinet “reflects the aspiration that I believe lies at the heart of our country”.
Speaking from the Wyldecrest Sports Country Club in Essex, however, Nigel Farage declared that it was “the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet”.
While the Reform UK leader hedged his harsh assessment by saying there were “a couple exceptions”, Farage maintained nonetheless that he thought the new cabinet was going to find the decision-making ahead of them “very, very hard”.
“If you actually look at their life stories, their backgrounds and bear in mind, these are people making executive decisions that fundamentally affect people’s lives, I think they’re going to find it very, very hard,” he said. “And I say that because the country faces some really fundamental problems, I suspect this government could be in trouble pretty quickly.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
I will be shortly handing over the blog to my colleague Vivian Ho. Thank you for your emails and comments today.
Here is a summary of the key events from Saturday so far:
Prime minister Keir Starmer has held his first cabinet meeting at Downing Street where he told his assembled ministers: “We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work”. At a press conference shortly after the meeting, Starmer told journalists: “I had the opportunity to set out [to] my cabinet precisely what I expect of them in terms of standards, delivery and the trust that the country has put in them.” He also said he was proud to have cabinet ministers who “didn’t have the easiest of starts in life” and reflect the “aspiration” at the heart of Britain.
Starmer announced that he would be setting off tomorrow to visit all four nations of the United Kingdom, saying “we clearly on Thursday got a mandate from all four nations”. He said his plan is to visit Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland and then Wales before returning to England. Later on Tuesday next week, Starmer will set off for Washintgton to attend the Nato summit.
Starmer labelled the previous government’s Rwanda scheme a “gimmick” which was “dead and buried before it started”. Speaking to the media in Downing Street, Starmer said the Rwanda scheme had “never been a deterrent”.
Starmer said it is “impossible” to say the government will stop the early release of prisoners. He also said: “It’s a failure of government to instruct the police not to arrest. This has not had enough attention, in my view, but it’s what happened. We will fix that, but we can’t fix it overnight”.
During a question and answer session with journalists at today’s press conference, Starmer said he is “restless for change” and said that, although he didn’t want to get ahead of himself before the election results, preparations by his party had been “extensive over the last six months”. He added: “It is not an overnight excercise changing the country.”
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor who previously ran as a Tory leadership hopeful, has ruled himself out of the race, telling GB News that the “time has passed”.
The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week. The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.
The Liberal Democrats say they have won in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. An official recount is still under way, however, the party has posted on X this morning: “Liberal Democrats GAIN Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. Congratulations Angus MacDonald MP.”
Nigel Farage said his aim is to “build a mass movement for real change leading up to the next sets of elections”. Speaking from Wyldecrest sports country club in Essex on Saturday, the Reform UK leader said: “We will do what we can with five in parliament, what I will do for certain is provide real opposition in the country.”
Tory grandees including David Cameron are pushing back against the idea of a swift Conservative leadership contest, saying they want the candidates to be tested. Prospective candidates, including Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, Priti Patel, and Victoria Atkins, are among the long list of names believed to be preparing possible bids.
Some of Rishi Sunak’s closest allies are facing an angry backlash after being awarded honours by the former prime minister, despite their apparent role in the “insane” decision to call an early election. The former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith were singled out by angry candidates and aides for their role in the “cataclysmic defeat” that several sources claimed had been made worse by the early election decision.
Updated
Back to Keir Starmer’s press conference from earlier. The prime minister was asked about the NHS and when he would be able to commit to getting 40,000 additional appointments up and running.
Starmer explained that some hospitals, including St Thomas’ and Leeds hospital had done just that “of their own volition because they were so concerned about the impact of waiting lists on their own hospitals”. He said these hospitals had set up their own schemes to work evenings and weekends and that he and his party had spoken to the hospitals about how they had done it.
Starmer told journalists:
We will use them around the country now. They’ve agreed to this. They will go across the country to be deployed to help set up the models in other hospitals as quickly as we can, so I can’t say that by date x that it will happen, but we’ve already had quite some discussions about how that will be rolled out from day one.”
Nigel Farage said his aim is to “build a mass movement for real change leading up to the next sets of elections”, reports the PA news agency.
Speaking from Wyldecrest sports country club in Essex, the Reform UK leader said:
We will do what we can with five in parliament, what I will do for certain is provide real opposition in the country.
And my aim and ambition is to build a mass movement for real change, leading up to the next sets of elections.”
Asked how he would sell proportional representation to the public, Farage said: “Well, the fact that for every Reform MP there are 800,000 voters, and for every Labour MP there are 30,000 voters suggests something is very badly, fundamentally wrong.”
He added: “We have five MPs, PR would have given us 97 MPs, but we are where we are.”
Asked who he would like to see as Conservative party leader, Farage said: “Honestly, I don’t think it matters who they pick as leader. This party is split down the middle, they call it a broad church, well, it’s a broad church with no common shared religion.”
Farage said Reform is “going to do very, very well” in the Senedd election and based on how it performed in Scotland during the general election, the party would “very much be in the territory of winning seats in the Scottish parliament too”.
During a question and answer session with journalists at the earlier press conference, Keir Starmer was asked what his reaction was when he saw the general election exit poll on Thursday evening.
With a slight grin, Starmer said:
I was pleased to see that exit poll. I didn’t believe it until, like everybody else, I stayed up to watch all the results come in, peppered with the speeches I gave, including the one at 5am at the event that we held.
But, it was only as the final results came through that I was confident that we’d got to where we needed to be to do the work that we need to do.”
Updated
Starmer says he's proud to have cabinet ministers who 'didn’t have the easiest of starts in life'
Keir Starmer said he was proud to have cabinet ministers who “didn’t have the easiest of starts in life” and reflect the “aspiration” at the heart of Britain.
The prime minister told journalists:
I’m really proud of the fact that my cabinet reflects the aspiration that I believe lies at the heart of our country.
That aspiration that so many people have, wherever they started from, to make a journey in life for themselves, for their families, their communities and ultimately for their country.”
Starmer had to catch himself referring to the “shadow cabinet”. He quickly corrected to say that at the cabinet meeting, he had told ministers:
I’m proud of the fact that we have people around the cabinet table who didn’t have the easiest of starts in life but to see them sitting in the cabinet this morning was a proud moment for me and this changed Labour party and a reinforcement of my belief in that aspiration, which is a value I use to help me make decisions.”
He refused to be drawn on the prospect of further peerages being given to experts, saying: “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. We are making further appointments this afternoon in relation to the frontbench.”
Updated
Prisons fix won't happen overnight, says Starmer
Starmer said it is “impossible” to say the government will stop the early release of prisoners.
He told the press conference in Downing Street:
We’ve got too many prisoners, not enough prisons. That’s a monumental failure of the last government on any basic view of government to get to a situation where you haven’t got enough prison places for prisoners, doesn’t matter what your political stripe, that is a failure of government.
It’s a failure of government to instruct the police not to arrest. This has not had enough attention, in my view, but it’s what happened.
We will fix that, but we can’t fix it overnight and therefore it is impossible to simply say we will stop the early release of prisoners and you wouldn’t believe me if I did say it.”
Updated
Starmer labels the Rwanda scheme a 'gimmick' and says it 'was 'dead and buried before it started'
Keir Starmer labelled the previous government’s Rwanda scheme a “gimmick” which was “dead and buried before it started”.
Speaking to the media in Downing Street, the prime minster said:
The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started. It’s never been a deterrent.
Look at the numbers that have come over in the first six and a bit months of this year, they are record numbers, that is the problem that we are inheriting.
It has never acted as a deterrent, almost the opposite, because everybody has worked out, particularly the gangs that run this, that the chance of ever going to Rwanda was so slim, less than 1%, that it was never a deterrent.
The chances were of not going and not being processed and staying here, therefore, in paid for accommodation for a very, very long time.
It’s had the complete opposite effect and I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent.”
Although he didn’t want to get ahead of himself before the election results, Keir Starmer said preparations had been “extensive over the last six months”.
He said he had instructed his now cabinet to make sure they had gone through their briefs on the decisions that need to be taken and people that they will have to talk to in relation to those decisions. “That work has been going on for six months or more,” said Starmer.
“It is not an overnight excercise changing the country.”
Updated
Starmer says he's 'restless for change' when asked about speed of delivery
Asked by the BBC’s Chris Mason how quickly he could deliver “concrete change”, Keir Starmer answered:
Look, I’m restless for change and I think and hope that what you’ve already seen demonstrates that. Not least, the appointment yestreday of Patrick Vallance and James Timpson, two individuals who are associated with change and delivery. And it won’t suprise you to know that the discussions I had yesterday with them weren’t the first discussions I’ve had with them.”
Referring to 14 year’s of a Tory government, Starmer said “it is going to take time”. “We have plans in place,” he added, repeating the line from election night about how Labour had wanted to “hit the ground running”.
Updated
Starmer referred to a phone call between himself and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as he said that at the Nato summit he would “reiterate, as I did to president Zelenskiy yesterday, the support that we will have in this country and with our allies towards Ukraine”.
Starmer said: “This will be a politics and a government that is about delivery [and] service. Self-interest is yesterday’s politics. I want a politics and a country that works for you.”
Later on Tuesday next week, Starmer will set off for Washintgton to attend the Nato summit. He said he had already had a number of international telephone calls “to establish the relations across with other countries, to have really important discussions about Ukraine and other pressing issues”.
He said security and defence is “the first duty” of his government and he will make clear the UK’s support of Nato.
Updated
'Self-interest is yesterday's politics' says Starmer
Starmer said his party had received “a mandate to do politics differently”.
He added: “This will be a politics and a government that is about delivery, is about service. Self-interest is yesterday’s politics.”
Updated
Starmer added that the metro mayors meeting on Tuesday will include non-Labour mayors, as there is “no monopoly on good ideas and I’m not a tribal politician”.
He said of regional governors that “regardless of the colour of their rosette”, his door is open and his government will work with them if they want to deliver change.
Starmer has spoken about economic growth, which he described as the “number one mission of a Labour government”. He said the cabinet had discussed “driving growth” and “to make sure that that growth is everywhere across the whole country so people are better off everywhere, wherever they live.”
“The principle I operate to is that those with skin in the game know what is best for their communities,” said Starmer. He added that this requires being “bold about pushing power and resource out of Whitehall".
When he’s back from his tour of the four nations, Starmer said he will hold a meeting of the metro mayors on Tuesday to discuss with them “their part in delivering the growth that we need across the United Kingdom”.
Starmer will set off tomorrow to visit all four UK nations
Starmer said: “We clearly on Thursday got a mandate from all four nations. For the first time in 20+ years, we have a majority in England, in Scotland and in Wales, and that is a clear mandate to govern for all four corners of the United Kingdom.”
Starmer added that from tomorrow, he will set off “to be in all four nations”. His plan is to visit Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland and then Wales before returning to England. He said that he will meet the first ministers to “establish a way of working across the United Kingdom that will be different and better to the way of working that we’ve had in recent years, and to recognise the contributions of all four nations”.
Updated
Starmer said:
At the cabinet meeting, I also discussed mission delivery. How we would put into action the plans that we had set out in our manifesto. And that we would have mission delivery boards to drive through the change that we need and that I’ll be chairing those boards so that it is clear to everyone that they are my prioirty in government.”
The prime minister said that he also reminded the cabinet that “we would be judged on actions, not on words”. He added that he will continue this afternoon to make a number of frontbench appointments.
Updated
Keir Starmer has begun his press conference by saying: “We’re a changed Labour party.”
He mentioned his first steps in Downing Street, such as the cabinet appointments he’s already made and holding his first cabinet meeting this morning.
“At that cabinet meeting, I had the opportunity to set out [to] my cabinet precisely what I expect of them in terms of standards, delivery and the trust that the country has put in them.”
Updated
Starmer has arrived and begun speaking, updates to follow…
Keir Starmer is expected to give a press conference at 1pm. I’ll be posting updates here but you can follow live via the video in the main image at the top of the page (you might have to refresh the page for it to pop up).
Some of Rishi Sunak’s closest allies are facing an angry backlash after being awarded honours by the former prime minister, despite their apparent role in the “insane” decision to call an early election.
In a sign of the growing anger within the party ranks over the decision to call the snap poll – as well as alarm over the way it was conducted – the former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith were singled out by angry candidates and aides for their role in the “cataclysmic defeat” that several sources claimed had been made worse by the early election decision.
Booth-Smith was handed a peerage in the dissolution honours list, while Dowden was given a knighthood. Both are said to have backed an early election, with Dowden described as particularly influential.
“Somewhere between 1,300 to 1,500 people lost their jobs last night,” said one senior Tory source. “The person who helped decide that this was the right time to do the election, Liam Booth-Smith, was included in the dissolution honours on the same night.” Dowden was also criticised by one figure for backing an election before playing little part in the election campaign itself. Another senior Tory adviser said simply: “Fuck that guy.”
Others defended the pair, stating it was “standard practice” for senior advisers and MPs to be rewarded. However, the blame game has started in earnest after a campaign that was criticised for repeated errors, from Sunak’s rain-soaked election announcement to his decision to leave D-day commemorations early. Insiders painted a picture of a despairing campaign in which the Tory HQ regularly struggled to find ministers to take to the airwaves. “That’s why you saw the same names,” said one party source. “Poor Mel Stride.”
Updated
The new defence secretary John Healey has stressed his mission to “make Britain secure at home and strong abroad” as he addressed the Ministry of Defence for the first time.
He told armed forces and civilian staff:
We know these are serious times – war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East, growing Russian aggression, increasing global threats. We know there are serious problems – with our armed forces hollowed out and underfunded for 14 years.
And this government now is totally committed to 2.5% of defence spending, to Nato, to the nuclear deterrent and to support for Ukraine.
The country has new leadership. This ministry has new leadership. Our mission is to make Britain secure at home and strong abroad, with the guiding principle of one defence.”
Updated
Keir Starmer has chaired his first cabinet meeting in Downing Street as the new prime minister. Joined by his deputy PM, Angela Rayner, to his left and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, to his right, he told his ministers: “We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work”.
Keir Starmer told the first gathering of his new cabinet in Downing Street:
Look colleagues, it is absolutely fantastic to welcome you to the cabinet, our first meeting. And it was the honour and privilege of my life to be invited by the King, His Majesty the King yesterday to form a government and to form the Labour Government of 2024.
Now we hold our first Cabinet meeting, so I welcome you to it. We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work.”
His words were met with loud applause. Starmer was flanked at the cabinet table by his deputy and housing secretary Angela Rayner and cabinet secretary Simon Case.
Updated
Starmer and Labour's new ministers pictured around cabinet table for first time
The first images of Keir Starmer’s new cabinet meeting at No 10 Downing Street have been released:
Updated
Liberal Democrats claim win in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
The Liberal Democrats say they have won in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire.
An official recount is still under way, however, the party has posted on X this morning: “Liberal Democrats GAIN Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. Congratulations Angus MacDonald MP.”
🔶Liberal Democrats GAIN Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) July 6, 2024
Congratulations Angus MacDonald MP pic.twitter.com/1HenMB4pjr
Updated
After the cabinet meeting, Keir Starmer will face questions from journalists in his first press conference as prime minister. That’s scheduled for 1pm.
Other ministerial appointments are expected be announced over the weekend. The PA news agency reports that Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, said Starmer will move to quickly allocate responsibilities ahead of the Nato summit.
Starmer will make his debut on the international stage as Britain’s premier when he flies to Washington DC for the gathering next week, which is expected to include discussions on support for Ukraine. He is also due to host the European Political Community summit in the UK on 18 July.
Jeremy Hunt rules himself out of Tory leadership race
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor who previously ran as a Tory leadership hopeful, has ruled himself out of the race, telling GB News that the “time has passed”.
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A flurry of cabinet ministers have been arriving at Downing Street for their first meeting.
Health secretary Wes Streeting told reporters “We’re getting straight to work” as he walked in, closely followed by transport secretary Louise Haigh.
The PA news agency reports that when asked by journalists when railways would be nationalised, Haigh said: “As soon as possible.”
Next to appear was science secretary Peter Kyle and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, with the latter stressing the new government had “a lot to get on with”.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds both arrived at Downing Street together. Speaking to reporters, Miliband said: “It’s good to be back.”
Seconds later, foreign secretary David Lammy also appeared and met his fellow ministers before entering No 10.
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New ministers arrive at No 10 for first cabinet meeting
Keir Starmer’s cabinet have been arriving at Downing Street to attend their first cabinet meeting. Here are some images via the newswires:
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Suella Braverman said there were “no announcements” on the Tory leadership race, reports the PA news agency.
The former home secretary is expected to throw her hat into the ring in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak, who said he would quit as leader once formal arrangements were in place to select his successor.
Asked whether she would be the next Tory leader, Braverman told broadcasters outside her home on Saturday: “No announcements. We’ve just got to take our time, we’ve got to figure out what the situation is.”
She continued: “It’s been a really bad result. There’s no two ways about it. Hundreds of excellent Tory MPs have been kicked out of office.”
According to the PA news agency, Braverman went on to criticise Keir Starmer for planning to axe the Rwanda deportation scheme, saying:
Years of hard work, acts of parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked.
But there are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.
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We reported earlier that Keir Starmer will be holding his first cabinet meeting today. That will be taking place at 11am.
Keir Starmer to gather his cabinet for first time in No 10 this morning.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) July 6, 2024
It is almost identical to shadow team, with new PM understood to favour stability, & plan to keep them in post.
Also most state educated & female cabinet in history 👇🏼https://t.co/3Zjf4zpRTW
Later, around 1pm, we’re expecting him to address the media. We will cover that press conference here in the blog.
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Reporting this morning from Downing Street, the BBC’s political correspondent Nick Eardley says he’s been watching a removal van being loaded up. “I’m not sure if it’s Rishi Sunak or Jeremy Hunt’s stuff being moved out,” he says.
Also, he shared this image of Downing Street’s steadfast resident, Larry the cat:
What’s all the fuss? 🐱 pic.twitter.com/moSsr542Ml
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) July 6, 2024
David Cameron and senior Tories push back against swift leadership contest
Tory grandees including David Cameron are pushing back against the idea of a swift Conservative leadership contest, saying they want the candidates to be tested.
Prospective candidates, including Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, Priti Patel, and Victoria Atkins, are among the long list of names believed to be preparing possible bids.
The contenders are readying themselves for a speedy contest to appoint a successor to Rishi Sunak by the early autumn in an effort to challenge the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
But senior figures are pushing for the contest to take place over a longer period to allow candidates to pitch themselves to the grassroots membership in a “beauty contest” at the Conservative conference in early October.
George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor, said on Friday that Cameron was part of a “big effort … to get Rishi Sunak to just delay the moment when the new leader is chosen”.
He said: “The contest can start, but it doesn’t have to conclude. It’s very important, because these people, these candidates, they’re all government ministers who have now been kicked out of office. None of them have been in opposition.
“None of them have proved their mettle. I think over the next few months, it’s essential, and I know David thinks this and others do too, we just see how these candidates now perform on the opposition benches and use the party conference in the same way that Michael Howard did, to his eternal credit, in 2005.”
You can read the full report by Rowena Mason and Eleni Courea here:
Former Tory minister may become Labour’s ‘planning tsar’
Labour has approached a former Conservative minister to help steer through its proposals to bulldoze planning rules, with a flurry of changes expected within days to “get Britain building” millions of new homes.
Nick Boles, who was a planning minister in David Cameron’s coalition government, has been approached for a review of the UK’s National Planning Policy Framework, with the aim of making it easier to build homes, laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories.
Keir Starmer is preparing to announce immediate changes to planning regulations as early as next week, including reinstating mandatory targets for local authorities to build more homes and making it easier to build on green belt land.
Labour is also planning to launch a consultation to decide where to build a series of new towns, with the aim of selecting sites by the end of the year.
Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor, has put planning reform at the heart of her growth plans, arguing that none of the party’s broader housebuilding and infrastructure plans will work without it.
Party sources said that Boles, who switched his allegiance from the Tories to Labour in late 2022 shortly after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, could be made a “planning tsar” to help pilot a broad-ranging review of the system.
Boles, who made his name as a minister by pushing for wide-ranging planning reform, has criticised the Conservative party for dropping the agenda under pressure from backbench MPs.
You can read the full piece by Richard Partington and Kiran Stacey here:
The Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, has written this piece packed full of interesting insights into how Labour won the general election.
Crerar explains how each decision made in “the cell” was framed by three key messages and pushed along by a well-disciplined operation.
Take a look inside the campaign that led to “Starmergeddon” here:
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My Guardian colleague Dan Sabbagh has looked at how No 10 slipped from Rishi Sunak’s grasp. He writes:
Rishi Sunak became Britain’s prime minister quickly and unexpectedly in October 2022 after the short, financially catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss and the leadership of Boris Johnson, whose loose moral compass had allowed Downing Street to party while the rest of the UK was locked down.
The economic situation was dire – inflation at 11%, mortgages threatening to soar by £5,000 a year – and the political inheritance more desperate. But since then the 44-year-old prime minister has failed to turn around the Conservative’s fortunes. Lacking a transformative touch, he led the party to a historic defeat.
“Undoubtedly, Rishi had a difficult hand,” said Lee Cain, a former No 10 director of communications under Johnson who has also advised Sunak and now runs his own firm, Charlesbye Strategy.
“But he played it poorly. He had broadly the wrong strategy from the start, in an environment where people were crying out for change. You heard it in every focus group, but Rishi came in and positioned himself as the status quo candidate.”
Team Sunak’s original plan was to under-promise and over-deliver. On the day he started, his Conservatives were 30 points behind the Labour opposition in the polls. In his first address to the nation as prime minister, Sunak promised “integrity, professionalism and accountability” and said: “Trust is earned. And I will earn yours.”
There are arguably two Sunaks. The first is an immigrant success story: a British Asian from Southampton, Hampshire, a practising Hindu, the son of a GP and pharmacist, who made the historic achievement of becoming the UK’s first non-white prime minister. At the age 42, he was the youngest leader of the country in more than 200 years.
The other is a full member of Britain’s old fashoned establishment, who studied at the fee-paying Winchester College, then Oxford, before a career in the City of London and California’s Silicon Valley and a plum seat in parliament. This is the man married to a wealthy heiress, Akshata Murty, whose shareholding in the Indian IT business her father co-founded is worth nearly £600m.
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Education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Munira Wilson, acknowledged the party benefited from voters wanting to turf out a Conservative government.
According to the PA news agency, the Twickenham MP told Sky News:
We were very clear that after the previous Conservative government, which was frankly full of chaos and incompetence and had broken the trust of the British people and broken our economy, time was up for them and in many of those seats where we won we made it very clear to voters that if they wanted to turf out the Tories they had to vote Liberal Democrat and they did.
So obviously in every election it’s a combination of the two, but I am also confident that our messages around cost-of-living, sewage, health and care did really resonate with voters.”
Wilson also told the broadcaster that the Conservatives will be “tearing themselves apart” working out a new leader and what direction they are going in, but Lib Dem MPs will be “focused” on being an opposition party.
She said:
It’s really important for the British people that there are opposition MPs asking tough questions and scrutinising the legislation that Labour are going to bring forward, and I can assure you that every Liberal Democrat MP in the House of Commons will be doing that and will be focused on the job and not worried about where the party’s going.”
She told Sky News the Lib Dems surpassed everyone’s expectations, “including my own”, and that the party hopes to bring its record number of MPs up from 71 to 72 after the recount in the final seat to declare – Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire.
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Keir Starmer’s cabinet will have the highest number of state-educated and female ministers in history, as Rachel Reeves became the first female chancellor ever, although ethnic representation has fallen.
A record 89 minority ethnic MPs were elected to parliament overall, according to research by the thinktank British Future, but David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will be the only black cabinet minister in Starmer’s government.
The first Labour cabinet in 14 years will also only have two ministers of Asian descent – Shabana Mahmood, one of the UK’s first Muslim female MPs, and Lisa Nandy.
Only two ministers in Starmer’s cabinet went to private school – Louise Haigh, who attended Sheffield High School, and Anneliese Dodds, who went to Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen.
Large numbers of Conservative MPs being replaced by Labour candidates means the proportion of state-educated members has risen from 54% to 63%.
That is still far short of the 88% of people among the general public who went to comprehensive schools, but it represents the highest proportion of state-schooled members ever recorded in parliament.
The Labour veteran and Britain’s first black female MP, Diane Abbott, will become mother of the house in the new parliament, having served her Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency for almost 40 years.
More than 40% of seats in the Commons will be held by women, a record that includes 46% of Labour MPs and 24% of their Conservative counterparts.
You can read the full piece by Aletha Adu and Michael Goodier here:
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It’s always fascinating to see how the newspaper front pages compare.
Luckily for us, Adam Fulton has been on the job and he’s brought us what the papers are saying after Keir Starmer took the reins as UK prime minister
The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.
THE GUARDIAN: ‘We will fight every day until you believe again’ #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/iOrPbepYir
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 5, 2024
You can see the other front pages here:
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Wes Streeting says NHS is broken as he announces pay talks with junior doctors
The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, has declared the NHS is broken as he announced talks with junior doctors in England would restart next week.
The Ilford North MP said patients were not receiving the care they deserved and the performance of the NHS was “not good enough”.
But in his first speech in the job he stressed that the problems could not be fixed overnight after the health service had gone through “the biggest crisis in its history” after the pandemic.
Streeting said: “This government will be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them. From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
“That is the experience of patients who are not receiving the care they deserve, and of the staff working in the NHS who can see that – despite giving their best – this is not good enough.”
The new health secretary delivered on his promise to call junior doctors in England on “day one” of a Labour government.
Health leaders have urged the government to resolve the long-running dispute with junior doctors as a “priority” after it emerged that tens of thousands of appointments were postponed as a result of the latest strike.
“I have just spoken over the phone with the BMA [British Medical Association] junior doctors committee, and I can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week,” Streeting said in a statement.
“We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing.”
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A recount in the last remaining undeclared seat in the 2024 general election will begin on Saturday morning, amid reports the SNP candidate has already conceded defeat.
Despite an initial count on Thursday night and a recount on Friday, the result of the contest in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire remains undecided.
The PA news agency reports that a further recount is due to commence at 10.30am, with the SNP’s Drew Hendry locked in a close battle with Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald.
The BBC reported on Friday evening that Hendry had conceded defeat ahead of the count, and that the seat is expected to become the Liberal Democrats’ sixth in Scotland.
This would come as a further blow to the SNP in what has been a bruising election for the nationalists, having lost 39 of the 48 seats they won in 2019, mainly to a resurgent Labour.
If you haven’t come across Rowena Mason’s latest piece, I’d reccommend a read of it. The Guardian’s Whitehall editor takes you behind the scenes of the Tories’ chaotic election campaign, all the way from the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine.
What's coming up today
Here is a look at the political schedule for Saturday, courtesy of the PA news agency:
Prime minister, Keir Starmer, is expected to hold the first meeting of his new cabinet as starts working on Labour’s manifesto pledges and preparing for a Nato summit next week. The new cabinet is expected to meet at 11am.
At 10.30am, a recount in the final seat to declare – Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire – will start.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will go on a walkabout with new MP Blair McDougall in East Renfrewshire this morning.
Nigel Farage is scheduled to visit Essex with James McMurdock, the new MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock.
Who could replace Sunak as Tory leader?
The votes have been counted, the dust has largely settled, and the Conservatives are left with 121 MPs. From this rump – about a third of the pre-election total – who will compete to take over as party leader from the soon to depart Rishi Sunak?
The likely main contenders, broadly listed from centre to right, are: Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat, Victoria Atkins, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage*.
* Farage is, very obviously, not a Conservative member and now leads his four Reform UK MPs in the Commons. Could the remaining Tories welcome him as a leader? Would Farage want the job? The answer to both is most probably no. But stranger things have happened.
Peter Walker runs you through the main contendersfor the Tory leadership and weighs up their chances and what a run for the job might look like:
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Following a landslide election victory, Keir Starmer’s Labour government faces a range of urgent priorities both home and abroad, from a prison’s overcrowding crisis and huge NHS waiting lists to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Starmer’s team is one of the most experienced in recent times, with many MPs who served Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
My colleague David Batty has listed the members of the new cabinet and the main tasks that await them in this handy explainer:
Starmer to hold first cabinet meeting
Keir Starmer is expected to hold the first meeting of his cabinet as the UK’s new prime minister starts working on Labour’s manifesto pledges and preparing for a Nato summit next week.
Starmer made a range of appointments on his first day at 10 Downing Street on Friday and spoke with international leaders including the US president, Joe Biden, in a call the White House said included the two leaders reaffirming the UK-US “special relationship”.
Starmer confirmed Rachel Reeves as Britain’s first woman chancellor, Yvette Cooper as home secretary and David Lammy as foreign secretary, while Angela Rayner officially became his deputy prime minister and retained the levelling up, housing and communities brief.
After 649 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons had been declared in Thursday’s general election, Labour had a majority of 176. Labour had 412 seats and the Tories 121 – the worst result in the Conservative party’s history. The Liberal Democrats were on a record 71, the Scottish National party (SNP) on nine, Reform UK on five and the Greens on four.
Starmer entered Downing Street on Friday with a promise to use his historic election victory to rebuild Britain “brick by brick” and provide security for millions of working-class families.
“My government will fight, every day, until you believe again,” Starmer said in a speech outside No 10 which had echoes of Tony Blair’s vow to act as the servants of the people in 1997.
In other developments:
The election turnout figure stood at 59.8% at last count, a sharp decline from an overall turnout of 67.3% at the last election in 2019. A recount in the seat of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat was not to restart until 10.30am on Saturday, delaying the general election’s final result. The Liberal Democrats are poised to win the seat.
Starmer’s other ministerial appointments included John Healey as defence secretary; Shabana Mahmood as justice secretary; Wes Streeting as health secretary; Bridget Phillipson as education secretary and Ed Miliband as energy secretary.
Among the most high-profile Tory cabinet ministers unseated by opposition candidates were Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader. Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, and Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, were also ousted. Former prime minister Liz Truss lost her seat in South West Norfolk. The Conservatives lost every seat they had held in Wales.
After the Tories’ disastrous results, former Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles warned that the party could face “oblivion” at the next general election. He said there were now no “safe seats”.
Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, used his final speech in Downing Street to apologise to the British people and the Conservative party. Sunak confirmed he was standing down as Conservative leader but would stay in place while his replacement was elected. The Guardian has been told that prospective Conservative party leadership candidates are preparing for a speedy contest to appoint a successor to Sunak by the autumn in an effort to challenge the rise of Reform. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party’s leader, said his priority was to now target Labour votes.
Scottish first minister and SNP party leader John Swinney described the party’s election results – the SNP’s worst since 2010 – as “very damaging” and tough.
Sinn Féin has become Northern Ireland’s largest party in Westminster after voters turned against the Democratic Unionist party (DUP). The DUP lost three of its eight Westminster seats in the election, including the North Antrim stronghold held by Ian Paisley and before that his late father since 1970.
Ireland’s premier, Simon Harris, said the Labour government’s election in the UK could herald a “great reset” in Anglo-Irish relations.
PA Media contributed to this report
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