Keir Starmer says how he feels as PM in three-word vow giving hope to nation
Keir Starmer has said he is “restless for change” in his first press conference as Prime Minister.
The PM said the landslide victory in the General Election gave Labour “a clear mandate to govern in all four corners of the United Kingdom” as he vowed to get started with the work to rebuild Britain. Mr Starmer promised that “self-interest is yesterday’s politics” and has told his Cabinet “will be judged on actions not on words”.
In a bid to show he is getting straight to work, the PM laid out his plans for the country at a podium in a Downing Street briefing room for the first time. He said the “mindset” in Government has already changed. “It’s a mindset of service, of country first, of party second,” he said. “That’s not a slogan, that is the test for all of our decisions.”
Mr Starmer’s party stormed to victory, winning an historic 176-seat majority in Thursday’s General Election. The PM chaired his first Cabinet meeting with his top team on Saturday, which he described as a “moment in history”.
But with a country in crisis, Mr Starmer has admitted there is a “huge amount of work” to do to pull the country out of a deep crisis. He told the nation his work would be centred on “honesty”, as he pointed to Health Secretary Wes Streeting declaring “the NHS is broken” on Friday.
The PM said he had set out to his Cabinet “exactly what I expect of them in terms of standards, delivery, and the trust that the country has put in them”. “At that 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,” Sir Keir said.
He continued: “And yesterday I met Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on standards, to discuss how we deliver in Government. 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.”
The PM will set off on Sunday on a tour of all four nations. “For the first time in 20 plus 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,” he said.
He will go first to Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland and then Wales, before returning to England, during which time he will meet First Ministers and “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”.
He also said his “first duty” in government is security as he laid out his plans to go to NATO and meet with world leaders next week.
