Starmer flies to Washington D.C. for NATO summit after jam-packed day

Talk about getting on with the job. Keir Starmer kicked off his first official day as Prime Minister with an early morning meeting of the country’s 12 mayors, followed by Cabinet and then off to Westminister to be sworn in as PM to a packed house – only the fourth Labour leader to win a general election since the party was formed more than a century ago and the nation’s seventh Labour PM. 

No wonder Starmer looked triumphant as he took up his new position on the front bench surrounded by 410 Labour comrades, many of whom had to stand due to limited seating space. It was also the first day for so many new MPs – 335 in fact, and the largest wave of new parliamentarians in modern history to enter the Commons. And as though we could forget, the first MPs from Nigel Farage’s brand-new Reform party.

And not surprisingly, Starmer was also more genial than his usual dour personae allows him to show. He was obviously savouring every moment of his victory, declaring that this parliament would be “one of service.” He went on to celebrate the “most diverse parliament by race and gender this country has ever seen” and, in a nightmare scenario for those fearing a woke government, and made a special acknowledgement to the “largest cohort of LGBTQ+ MPs of any parliament in the world”. 

The new PM also paid special tribute to the “parents” of the House, Diane Abbott and Sir Edward Leigh, before concluding his remarks with an emphasis national renewal and the importance of restoring public trust in politics. 

Despite the humbling election result, ex-PM Rishi Sunak was upbeat and warm in his first statement as leader of the opposition, paying  his respects to Labour and the speaker as he promised to hold the new government to account. Now on the back foot as well as the back bench, his party appeared as a shell of their former selves, vastly diminished as its remaining MPs vied for space among the dozens of Lib Dem arrivals, the new Reformers, the Greens, and the skeleton crew of the SNP. 

The SNP, DUP, Greens and other party heads echoed the apolitical sentiments of the session, expressing their gratitude to the speaker of the house – Sir Lindsay Hoyle – and the esteemed senior members Abbott and Leigh. As per tradition, Hoyle was once again reluctantly dragged to the pulpit to cries from the Commons.

As expected, Commons new boy Farage couldn’t resist disrupting the mood of cordiality as he revived his long-standing gripe against former speaker, John Bercow, prompting a cacophony of groans. 

While “entirely endorsing” the current speaker, Farage called Hoyle’s predecessor “a little man who besmirched the office so dreadfully, in doing his best to overturn the biggest democratic result in the history of the country (Brexit)”. Watch this space – Farage’s “new kids on the block” intend to use every opportunity at their disposal to attract attention to their populist project.

Earlier in the day, Starmer held a special meeting with twelve of England’s metropolitan mayors, including London’s Sadiq Khan, to discuss plans for devolution. This involves a new “Council of regions and nations” which could offer additional powers and funding to local administrators to act on housing, economic growth, and transport. 

To round off a frenetic day, Keir Starmer leaves tonight his first official visit as PM as he heads to Washington DC for Thursday’s NATO summit. Starmer’s first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden will be tomorrow at the White House.

Biden faces an unprecedented challenge ahead of the summit, with many speculating that it may be a make or break moment for the President’s ailing campaign. If Biden continues down a path of gaffes and old-manisms in this critical summit, he may fall even further behind ex- President Trump who has been surging ahead in recent polls. 

The summit also carries incredible weight for the future of Europe, as member nations have a chance to reaffirm their unified support for an embattled and traumatising Ukraine, which lost at least 38 of its citizens to the Russian bombing of a children’s hospital Monday. 

For Starmer, the summit could also serve to convince detractors that he really is serious on defence spending. He may even publicly commit to the Holy Grail 2.5% defence spending threshold and encourage other European states to follow suit. That would certainly please Trump who has always argued that NATO members should contribute more.

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