Labour’s landslide victory will turn politics on its head
The EconomistListen to this story. S IR KEIR STARMER will today become Britain’s new prime minister, having led the Labour Party to a sweeping general-election victory after 14 years in opposition. Top of its to-do list is surgery to Britain’s planning system, which “has held back investment and building in Britain for far too long”, said Rachel Reeves, Britain’s chancellor-in-waiting, as the first results came in. Mr Farage promised a “mass national movement”; with three other Reform MP s and scores of second-place finishes in old Labour heartlands such as Sunderland, Blyth and Hartlepool, he has changed the nature of opposition for Sir Keir’s new government. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow paymaster general and an attack vehicle for the party, lost to an independent, showing how many Muslim voters have rejected its stance on the war in Gaza.