New British PM Starmer 'restless for change' after huge election win

Britain’s newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer on July 6 began his first full day in charge declaring the ousted Tories’ plan to deport migrants to Rwanda “dead and buried” and pledging growth as his government’s “No.1 mission”.

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The Labour leader, who on July 5 won a landslide election victory bringing to a close 14 years of Conservative rule, said he was “restless for change” and that his party had received a “mandate to do politics differently”.

Mr Starmer started the day with a first meeting of his Cabinet, which included Britain’s first woman finance minister Rachel Reeves and new foreign minister David Lammy.

“We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he told his top team to applause and smiles around the Cabinet table at 10 Downing Street.

At a news conference later, he said he would not be proceeding with former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial scheme to tackle rising small boat arrivals on England’s southern coast by deporting migrants to Rwanda.

“The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started... I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent,” he said.

Mr Starmer spent his first hours in Downing Street on July 5 appointing his ministerial team, hours after securing his centre-left party’s return to power with a whopping 174-seat majority in the British Parliament.

Notable lower-ranking appointments included Dr Patrick Vallance, chief scientific government adviser during the Covid-19 pandemic, who was made a science minister.