Keir Starmer Officially Takes Power as British PM after Landslide Victory

King Charles III officially appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Friday during an audience at Buckingham Palace - AFP
King Charles III officially appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Friday during an audience at Buckingham Palace - AFP
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Keir Starmer Officially Takes Power as British PM after Landslide Victory

King Charles III officially appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Friday during an audience at Buckingham Palace - AFP
King Charles III officially appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Friday during an audience at Buckingham Palace - AFP

Britain's head of state King Charles III officially appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister on Friday during an audience at Buckingham Palace, a few hours after his Labour party swept to power.

Labour leader Keir Starmer officially became British prime minister on Friday hours after his Labour Party swept to power in a landslide victory after more than a decade in opposition, AFP reported.

Starmer was elevated to the nation's leader after a private ceremony with King Charles III in Buckingham Palace.

In the merciless choreography of British politics, Starmer is taking charge in 10 Downing St. shortly after Conservative leader Rishi Sunak and his family left the official residence and King Charles III accepted his resignation at Buckingham Palace.

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“This is a difficult day, but I leave this job honored to have been prime minister of the best country in the world,” Sunak said in his farewell address.

Sunak had conceded defeat earlier in the morning, saying the voters had delivered a “sobering verdict.”

In a reflective farewell speech in the same place where he had called for the snap election six weeks earlier, Sunak wished Starmer all the best but also acknowledged his missteps.

“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss,” Sunak said. "To all the Conservative candidates and campaigners who worked tirelessly but without success, I’m sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved.”

With almost all the results in, Labour had won 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and the Conservatives 118.”

Speaking as dawn broke in London, he said Labour would offer “the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day.”

For Starmer, it's a massive triumph that will bring huge challenges, as he faces a weary electorate impatient for change against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric.

“Nothing has gone well in the last 14 years,” said London voter James Erskine, who was optimistic for change in the hours before polls closed. “I just see this as the potential for a seismic shift, and that’s what I’m hoping for.”

And that's what Starmer promised, saying “change begins now."

Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London, said British voters were about to see a marked change in political atmosphere from the tumultuous “politics as pantomime” of the last few years.

“I think we’re going to have to get used again to relatively stable government, with ministers staying in power for quite a long time, and with government being able to think beyond the very short term to medium-term objectives,” he said.

Britain has experienced a run of turbulent years – some of it of the Conservatives’ own making and some of it not – that has left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future. The UK divorce from the European Union followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the economy, while lockdown-breaching parties held by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff caused widespread anger.

Rising poverty, crumbling infrastructure and overstretched National Health Service have led to gripes about “Broken Britain.”



Trump Picks Mike Huckabee, Pro-Israel Conservative, as Ambassador

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
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Trump Picks Mike Huckabee, Pro-Israel Conservative, as Ambassador

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks to the media at Trump Tower in New York City on November 18, 2016. (AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was nominating former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel, tapping a staunchly pro-Israel conservative whose choice could signal future US policy toward conflicts in the Middle East.

An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. A former Republican presidential hopeful, Huckabee hosted a weekly Fox News TV show for six years ending in 2015.

"There’s no such thing as an occupation," Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its biblical names Judea and Samaria.

Evangelicals are an overwhelmingly pro-Israel part of Trump’s base and voted heavily in favor of him in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump's announcement of the nomination drew immediate praise from senior Israeli officials but was likely to be panned by Palestinians, whose nationalist cause Huckabee has denigrated in the past.

"He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!" Trump said in a statement.

Huckabee, 69, would take on one of Washington's most sensitive diplomatic posts at a time when Israel is fighting the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon while facing off against regional arch-foe Iran.

Huckabee has criticized President Joe Biden for pressuring Israel to moderate its conduct of the Gaza war and has opposed the current Democratic administration's calls for a ceasefire there.

"If a person is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden because the Biden administration has made it very clear they will make concessions to Hamas," Huckabee said in an interview in March on News Nation.

ISRAELI OFFICIALS HAIL NOMINATION

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the election of Trump, a staunch but sometimes unpredictable ally of Israel. In his first term the Republican president-elect delivered major wins for the Israeli leader.

Members of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, which includes pro-settler parties that oppose Palestinian statehood, hailed Huckabee's nomination.

"I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X. "As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem - I hope you will feel very much at home."

Trump has strongly backed Netanyahu's goal of destroying Hamas but has called for Israel to finish the job quickly. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East but has not said how.

If his first term is any indication, Trump is likely to pursue a strongly pro-Israel approach, going even beyond the solid support given by Biden to Washington's top regional ally.

Huckabee, who has led evangelical tours to Israel for years, has been a supporter of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state that would include the Gaza Strip.

Most of the international community views as illegal the settlements on the West Bank land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Huckabee served as Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007. He fell short in bids for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2016.

His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the current governor of Arkansas. She served as Trump's White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.