Keir Starmer has to seize this historic moment and win the country's confidence quickly

As Keir Starmer walked along Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, the clouds parted and the sun beamed down.

It was a new dawn for the UK in every sense. Starmer is only the second Labour leader to win a general election in the last 50 years, with the Tories consigned to their worst performance in history.

Just hours earlier Rishi Sunak had graciously announced his resignation under dark and moody skies. He must have feared a repeat of his election announcement, which will forever be haunted with the headlines ‘Things Can Only Get Wetter”. 

Classily, Sunak said of his successor: “In this job, his successes will be all our successes, and I wish him and his family well. Whatever our disagreements in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited man who I respect.”

Then we all waited for the new Prime Minister. Starmer visited King Charles at Buckingham Palace, and then made the short journey to Downing Street. It was then that the sun popped out and started beaming down on the most famous street in Britain.

It was brimming with Labour staff, activists, MPs and journalists, huddled together to catch a sight of Starmer’s entrance. He delayed his arrival, perhaps to increase the excitement and drama, and when the sleek Mercedes carrying the new Prime Minister and his wife turned into Downing Street huge cheers went up from the party faithful.

Starmer and his wife Victoria emerged beaming and embraced the crowds. The magnitude of his achievement was written on his face. Less than five years ago, Labour suffered its worst defeat in almost 100 years. In 2021, the party lost the seat of Hartlepool, and people predicted it would be out of office forever. 

Yet in those three years, Starmer has made the party electable again, winning seats like Aldershot and Harlow, which would have been inconceivable under Jeremy Corbyn. Yet despite Labour’s mammoth majority, it only increased its vote share by 2%. It’s won around two-thirds of the seats in the House of Commons and one third of the national vote.

Reform UK, the Green Party and pro-Gaza candidates all increased their seats and share of the vote. And Starmer acknowledged this in his speech. “Whether you voted Labour or not,  in fact especially if you did not I say to you, directly - my government will serve you,” he said.

“Politics can be a force for good - we will show that. And that is how we will govern - country first, party second.” Watching Starmer’s first speech as Prime Minister from the Downing Street pavement it felt historic.

Only four Labour Prime Ministers have won majorities since the Second World War, and in the last 50 years only Starmer and Blair. Yet the Labour leader is well aware of the challenges he faces with prisons overflowing and sewage being pumped into our waterways.

He told the British public: “Changing a country is not like flicking a switch and the world is now a more volatile place. This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins - immediately.”

If the election was not necessarily a ringing endorsement of Labour, it was certainly a vote for change. The Conservatives got less than one in four votes, a historic low, with many voters putting a cross in the ballot box next to protest parties like Reform UK or the Greens. Whether these people voted for Labour or not, they clearly want change - and Starmer has to show this quickly. 

Otherwise strong anti-establishment undercurrents could soon unsettle the new Prime Minister. Our politics has never been so volatile, but Starmer has the opportunity to win over the trust of the country.