Keir Starmer wields axe on Rwanda policy

Newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer began his first full day in charge on Saturday ­declaring the ousted Tories’ plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda ‘dead and buried’.

Sir Keir Starmer talks to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: British High Commissioner to Australia, Vicki Treadell

Newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer began his first full day in charge on Saturday ­declaring the ousted Tories’ plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda “dead and buried” and pledging growth as his government’s “No. 1 mission”.

He said he was “restless for change” and that his Labour Party had received a “mandate to do politics differently” after it won a landslide election on Friday, bringing to a close 14 years of Conservative rule.

“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, which included Britain’s first woman finance minister, Rachel Reeves, and new Foreign Minister David Lammy.

At a news conference afterwards Sir Keir 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 at his 10 Downing Street office.

Sir Keir spent his first hours in Downing Street on Friday ­appointing his ministerial team, hours after securing his centre-left party’s return to power with a whopping 174-seat majority.

Notable lower-ranking appointments included Patrick Vallance, chief scientific government adviser during the pandemic, who has been made a science minister.

James Timpson, whose shoe ­repair company employs ex-­offenders, was also made a prisons minister.

Keir Starmer chairs the first meeting of his cabinet in 10 Downing Street on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

Sir Keir said both new ministers were people “associated with change” and illustrated his determination to deliver concrete improvements to people’s lives.

Work on “driving growth” had already begun, he said, adding that he had told his ministers “exactly what I expect of them in terms of standards, delivery, and the trust that the country has put in them”.

Daunting challenges await his government, including a stagnating economy, creaking public services and households suffering from a years-long cost-of-living crisis.

World leaders lined up to congratulate the new British Prime Minister. He spoke by phone with US President Joe Biden and “discussed their shared commitment to the special relationship between the UK and US and their aligned ambitions for greater economic growth”, according to London.

Sir Keir spoke to Anthony ­Albanese by phone, discussing the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa later this year and the key challenges facing the region, including stategic competition and climate change.

“He (Sir Keir) added that he hoped to build on the already strong AUKUS partnership ­between the UK, Australian and the US,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

Sir Keir also spoke to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine President ­Volodymyr Zelensky, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, former – and potentially future – US president ­Donald Trump ignored Sir Keir, instead hailing the five-seat electoral breakthrough of his ally Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party.

Sir Keir will make his debut on the international stage as leader when he flies to Washington this week for a NATO summit.

“It is for me to be absolutely clear that the first duty of my government is security and defence, to make clear our unshakeable support of NATO,” he said.

He added that he had reiterated the support of the UK and its allies for Ukraine to Mr Zelensky.

Labour neared its record of 418 seats under ex-leader Tony Blair in 1997 by winning 412 on Friday.

The Conservatives suffered their worst defeat, capturing just 121 constituencies, prompting Mr Sunak to apologise to the nation and confirm that he would resign as Tory leader once arrangements were in place to select a successor.

A record 12 senior ex-government ministers lost their seats, alongside former prime minister Liz Truss, whose economically ­calamitous short-lived tenure in 2022 wounded the party irreparably ahead of the election.

It is now poised for another ­period of infighting between a moderate wing eager for a centrist leader and those who may even be willing to court Mr Farage as a new figurehead.

The election also saw the centrist Liberal Democrats make their biggest gains in around a century, claiming more than 70 seats.

But it was a dismal contest for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, which was virtually obliterated in Scotland. It dropped from 48 seats to just nine.

The Green Party quadrupled its MPs count to four.