The United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister after historic elections caused a seismic shift in power. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer met with King Charles this morning where the King asked him to form a new government. Foreign correspondent James Longman joins me now from Parliament in London for more.
James, this marks the end of 14 years of Conservative leadership. How significant is that? Diane, it's a huge moment, I think. The first thing to say is Labour doesn't often win elections in this country.
I think this is the second time. in the last 50 years that Labour have taken government from the Conservatives. Only our seventh Labour prime minister.
So a big moment in Britain, but I don't think there's massive enthusiasm necessarily for the Labour Party. This isn't like in 1997, where people really wanted to vote for Tony Blair. Their vote share has remained broadly the same.
The big story here is how the Conservative Party has basically been absolutely demolished. This is a party that was founded in the 1830s, and they have never had as bad a result. as we have seen here.
The country has punished them. Really senior political figures have lost their seats in Parliament, including Liz Truss. She is a former prime minister. And people are angry, angry at the way Brexit was handled, angry at Boris Johnson's Downing Street Covid parties, they're angry that the cost of living has spiralled and that public services seem to be on their knees.
So this was really punishing the Conservative Party, rewarding Labour, yes, but also a number of smaller parties as well. All people voting for these parties because They wanted to protest a Conservative government which, as you say, has been in power for 14 years. Diane?
So, James, what sticks out to you so far about the new Prime Minister and his plans for the country? Well, this is Keir Starmer, 61 years old, former public prosecutor. Had a pretty glittering career, actually, before entering Parliament quite late in his life, in his 50s. He is a barrister.
He cared for his mother when he was younger. She had a crippling disability as he grew up. He's repeated time and again on this.
campaign trail that his father's a toolmaker so he really appealed to people the idea that he's a man of the people but he also made a lot of promises in this campaign that he's not going to raise people's taxes but people are saying well how are you going to pay for all these wonderful new things that you're hoping to do the new investment that this country badly needs those issues that i listed off there so he's got some answering to do he's got a big mandate he's got a big challenge as well diane and james former president trump is also congratulating nigel farage whose reform uk party picked up several seats What do these results mean for Britain's relationship with the US moving forward? Well, broadly speaking, Keir Starmer is an internationalist. He has a lot in common with President Biden. This is the Labour Party is a sister party to the Democratic Party.
They would have a similar worldview. But yes, you do have this insurgent far-right party in reform. They got a large vote share.
Hasn't necessarily been translated into that many seats in Parliament, just four of them. But as you say, Nigel Farage elected for the first time. He tried eight times to be elected as a lawmaker in this country.
He has succeeded. But this is part of a wider trend, I think, across Europe of right-wing parties coming to the fore. We've seen huge gains for the right in Germany during the European elections. They control the government in Italy, in the Netherlands, and France this weekend on Sunday.
There will be another election round there where the far right will see a massive growth. So, look, Donald Trump, if he is re-elected in November, he will have for the first time I think, much more so than his last time in office, right-wing groups with whom he can agitate on major issues like NATO, like Ukraine, like climate change, for example. So, look, here we've got Keir Starmer, who has an ally in President Biden.
We've got the Europeans, mostly the European Parliament, which is still dominated by the centre, but the right moving across Europe. And it could look very different if Donald Trump is re-elected in November 2. Diane? All right, foreign correspondent James Longman in London for us.
Thanks, James.