Keir Starmer appoints cabinet after landslide general election win

Speaking outside Government House after being appointed Prime Minister In a speech at Buckingham Palace, Sir Keir pledged: “My government will serve you, and politics can be a force for good.”

“The work of change starts immediately, but there is no doubt that we will rebuild Britain.”

In his farewell speech outside Downing Street, Rishi Sunak apologised to the Conservative candidates and told the crowd: “I have heard your anger and your disappointment.”

Labour won 412 seats – giving the party a 174-seat majority in the new House of Commons. The Conservatives fell to an all-time low of 121 seats, a net fall of 251 seats.

The Liberal Democrats won 63 seats, giving them 71. The SNP suffered a heavy defeat, losing 38 seats to nine with one constituency yet to be declared.

The Reform Party won five seats, including its leader Nigel Farage’s seat in Clacton, while the Green Party increased its number of MPs from one to four. Plaid Cameron doubled its number of MPs from two to four.

Within hours of becoming prime minister, Sir Keir has been making rapid and furious appointments to his senior team. More ministerial roles are expected to be announced.

In addition to her role as Sir Keir’s deputy, Ms Rayner will have responsibility for the Department of Settlement, Housing and Communities.

A large majority of the cabinet members were educated in public schools, and only three of them were studying in private schools.

The other two veterans of the last Labour government are Energy Security and Net Zero Minister Ed Miliband and Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn.

Mr Lammy also served as a minister in the last Labour government alongside Pat McFadden, who served as Prime Minister, and Defence Minister John Healey.

All Cabinet members backed remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum. Before the election, Sir Keir ruled out the UK returning to the EU single market during his lifetime.

Sir Keir spent his first few hours as prime minister Receive congratulatory calls from world leaders.

US President Joe Biden told Sir Keir he looked forward to “strengthening the special relationship” with the UK, according to the White House and Downing Street.

“I am grateful to Prime Minister Starmer for his reaffirmation of the UK’s principled and unwavering support for Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir and Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris pledged to “reset and strengthen” Anglo-Irish relations “urgently and ambitiously”, the Irish government said.

The new government includes some unexpected appointments.

Richard Hermer is the prosecutor, not Emily Thornberry who was playing the role.

Mr Hermer, a friend of Sir Keir’s since his days as a barrister, will be given a life peerage to allow him to sit in the House of Lords and attend Cabinet meetings.

Some members of Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet have yet to be given new roles – including Ms Thornberry, shadow women and equalities minister and party leader Anneliese Dodds, and shadow minister without portfolio Nick Thomas-Symonds.

Former government science adviser Patrick Vallance has been peeraged to become science minister in the new government.

James Timpson was also peerage-ed and appointed Minister for Prisons.

He is currently CEO of Timpson Group, which employs ex-offenders in its UK watch and shoe repair chain.

The BBC understands that Lord Vallance and Lord Timpson will not attend the cabinet meeting.

As Chancellor, Ms Reeves is the first woman to hold the second most important position in government in the office’s 708-year history.

“To every girl and woman reading this, let us show today that there should be no limits to your ambitions,” she said.

Ms. Reeves told her new team of Treasury officials that she was “under no illusions about the scale of the challenges we face.”

Lamy said on social media that his appointment as foreign minister was “the honour of my life”.

Speaking to the BBC, Lamy said his top priorities were to “reset Europe, reset our relations with the global south, and reset the climate”.

Some of Sir Keir’s key allies lost their seats, including Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South, who was defeated by independent candidate Shaukat Adam, who campaigned against Mr Ashworth’s stance on the war in Gaza.

Former shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire has lost to Green Party leader Carla Denyer in Bristol Central.

After successfully fending off a challenge from a pro-Gaza independent in the Birmingham Ladywood borough, Shabana Mahmood has been appointed Justice Secretary.

“I think the really interesting thing in the last 24 hours… is that people say when they saw that government coming into Downing Street – just the sense of change… of a new group of people who look more like us and look like the rest of the country, who were very clear about the priorities,” Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former chief of public relations, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Council of Ministers announced its new formation, which includes:

Mr Sunak has pledged to remain as party leader until arrangements are in place to choose his successor.

Penny Mordaunt, the former leader of the House of Commons and twice a candidate for prime minister, lost her seat in Portsmouth North, as did former minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

One of the main reasons for the Conservatives’ result was a surge in support for the UK’s Reform Party – which won 14.3% of the vote, propelling party leader Nigel Farage into parliament for the first time, along with four other Reform MPs.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats became the third largest party in the House of Commons.

The Green Party recorded its best general election performance so far, winning 6.8% of the vote across Great Britain.