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creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> live from downing street, this is "bbc news." keir sharper has met with king charles as the u.k.'s new prime minister after a landslide victory for labour in the general election. >> it's not like flipping a switch but have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately. >> the prime ministerppoints

labour and peace to key cabinet positions. rachel reeves becomes the first female chancellor. angela rayer in and david lammy have been appointed. richie sunak said he's heard the anger of voters. >> i am sorry. i have given this job my all but you have sent a clear snap that the government of the united kingdom must change and yours is the only judgment that matters. >> ♪ sweet caroline -- ♪ >> and celebraons for the liberal democrats. they've won 71 seats and become the third largest party ithe commons. ♪

>> hello to you, welcome to do you think street. i'm ben thompson and it has been a day of come, and goings in the street behind me and we'll take you through all all you need too know. representatives from all the main parties. i want to run you through the main results. labour won 412 seats. it will give them a majority of 170. keir starmer has been appointed prime minister by king charles. he spent the afternoon appointing his first cabinet. sunak's party fell to just 121 seats. richie sunak left downing street saying he will resign as conservative leader. democrats gained 63 seats. their total of 71 makes them the

third largest party at westminster. faraj has won just five seats. in northern ireland, the largest single party holds seven of the 18 seats in the province and in scotland, the snp were the big losers, leaving them with just nine elected members in west ministers. labour and keir starmer. his first official business was to travel to buckingham palace where he met with the king. king charles, it's traditional, held in private but buckingham palace did issue this video of the moment. after that, it was a short trip

back here to downing street and his new home 10 downing street. he and his wife victoria traveled the last few yards to that famous front door by foot. you can see from, greeting them from the passments are labour party supporters. they've been allowed into the street this morning for that celebration. keir then made his first speech as prime minister. >> from now on you have a government unburdened by doctrine, guided only by the determination to serve your interests, to defy, quietly, those who have written our you have given us a clear mandate and we will use it to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread for lightly on your lives and unite our

country. >> so keir stormer has been pretty busy. he's wasted no time in appointing his first cabinet. most of the new ministers and secretaries are no surprise. angela rayner will be deputy prime minister and the u.k. will have its first female chance lower, rachel reeves. she was cabinet leader under brown the last-time labour were in power and david lammy will become the u.k.'s new foreign secretary. we speak to our political correspondent ian watson. ian, you've abandoned me here on downing street, you're in the dry inside but a land slide victory for labour and the new prime minister wasting no time in setting his team to work.

>> absolutely, bern and you have any sympathy. it's still wet outside on downing street. i'll talk about the cabinet bogses in a moment but two new ministers have been appointed who aren't ministers of parliament at all. one is sir patrick val answer. one of the three amigos fronting those press conferences during the pandemic. since a figure above politics. he's been given a peerage by lake and i think he's going to become the minister for science and also, james timson from the timson family. those are the key cutters in shoe a affairs, cobblers. he has bought fi quite some time in trying to give ex conviction a second chance and

he's going to be given a president's minister and also given a peerage. on day one of keir's residency at numbe 10, he's trying to say the labour party hasn't changed but it's also going to be bringing in people with competent these. this was something tried with mixed success by gordon brown in 2018. brought in jones, a senior military figure, lord west. in time, i think gordon brown perhaps set the agenda but keir starmer is picking that up and saying where people's expertise is not parliament isn't a barrier for appointing them. i think he went largely for unity. the shadow culture secretary was

defeated, and rayner is there now. but elsewhere, keir has built up relationships with civil service and business and so on. rachel reeves, as you were mentioning has moved into number 11 downing street as chancellor. johnny reynolds is continuing as business secretary when he was shadow business secretary before so that continuity very important to keir stormer because he wants to be seen delivering on some of his limited promises very quickly. ben: ian, good to talk to you. important developments tonight. thank you, ian watson. one man who has firsthand experience of what it's like on day one in do you think street is jonathan power. he was on tony blair's staff for his 10 years on downing street. jonathan, good to have you with us. talk to us about that transition. it's quite a change, isn't it?

you go from opposition, you can havell the ideas in the world. when you get inside number 10, you have to start delivering on some of those promises, don't you? >> our system of transition here in the u.k. is completely bonkers. you take people who are exhausted by a four-week campaign who have had no sleep at all and try to get them to make important decisions about the nuclear subs and all the rest of it. but keir starmer has hdled it very quickly and much smoother than we did in 1997. but it's a really big transition to do. ben: yes, and i guess if we looked at the polls they told us that labour were going to win. labour has had some time to get its head around the brief, work out what it will inherit and decide what it wants to do.

keir starmer wasting no time in appointing that cabinet and sending them to work. what will be at the top of the to-do list? >> they have to make some real progress before the summer break. like us, we were elected in may and had 100 days to get rdy before the summer. they're going to have a shorter time. they have to get some things done between now and the summer break. i would imagine they'll have a 100 days of their own that will go to the summer break and then they'll have decisions to make after that. the tngs -- we knew they would build up. you want to get to the things quickly. they have a real opportunities and will need to take some biggish steps between now and

the summer. ben: and labour being handed this big majority. richie soon a.c. on the campaign trail warning against it, saying it was a risk to democracy. some decisions may not be universally popular. how do you think keir starmer will use that power that he's been given today? >> all the comment i heard about big labour being a disaster is not what i -- big majorities are not ris. i worked for a big majority under tony blair. you have to debate, argue, carry people with you. it's not a dictatorship but you -- having a majority is an important thing to do and it gives him a chance to make some real change. i did notice in his speech that keir starmer emphasized unity to escape the foal warrizing of the

last two tory governments. that means he'll need to build a wilder coalition than just labour. people want the political parties to corps rat together and if you want to make lasting change, you want to cooperate. thinking back to tony blair, one of the few changes that survived wiz the -- was the academies. ben: it was a clear majority but was it a mandate? it was 35%. yes, it hands him the power to do all that stuff but is it a mandate from the british people? >> i don't buy in argument about percentage and share of the vote. we had a system. if we change the system to social representation, fine. tony blair had 37% something of the vote. had a large majority and was

able to govern fine. what happens when the votes are distributed between many parties. in 2019 election, the two parties were very polarized and people turned out and voted for them and not for the small parties. it's just a function of our system and election where it looked very clear that labour was going to win from the beginning so i don't believe that affects the mandate at all. for our system, if you have the largest number of votes then you have a mandate. ben: turn-out i think about 60% in an election you would think would have energized people. is this a damning verdict of the british people saying i can vote for people or they don't really deliver anything or was it that people thought this was a done deal. why vote? labour are going to win anyway. which side do you fall? >> on the second side.

people know that party is going to win anyway. also a lot of disappointed who didn't vote. many stayed at home. that's why you have a low turnout. it's not a crisis to democracy but a choice that people made. i don't thinthat affects the legitimacy of the election. if the next election is close you'll see turnout go up. >> jonathan, really good to talk to you. thank you for being with us. jonathan power there, tony blair's chief of staff. let's talk to a political analyst and friend of keir starmer. thanks for being with us on "bbc news." you know him well. whatle he be doing tonight, do you think? >> working. he's already appointed his entire cabinet as far as i can see, as you were discussing and he'll be in the next round.

ministers of state and he'll be at it right up until whatever it's time to knock off. he is a very driven guy and when he says he wants it to start on day one, he meant it. ben: does he get any timeoff, do you think? >> well -- this is intriguing. he does -- we know, he's preannounced it, actually and even when he was leader of the opposition, he did carve out time for his family. he carved out time actually for football so and he puts in the arsenal home games goo into his diary. they'll already have been in his diary. the arsenal home games have been announced for the next season. he'll be already thinking about how he's going to kind of marry

his duties as prime minister to his deep desire to see the arsenal. he will try, i'm sure, to try to sustain the kind of where it has been because it really was time he valued. you'd meet him in the pub before and he's relax. put his hair down and talk about nothing in particular. so -- but it's football and family. he's not a great reader. he reads journals, articles in newspapers but he's no great book reader but he's a driven guy. very driven man. ben: sorry to cut you off. there's a slight delay on the line. but it was interested in you said there as in who he is because he has a lot on his

plate. he has just walked into that door behind me and he's got to get on with the job of government. how would up describe his type of politics? how will he govern? what is his style? >> i thought you saw it at 12:30 today outside number 10. he doesn't carry doctrine and ideology much. he does carry values and a belief in behavior and ethics. he's a really -- he's a straight guy. and actually, in a group, he's one that naturally emerges as the kind of leader of the group, the man who says, you know, we can do this next, we're going to leave now, we're going to do that. he has a natural authority to him and you find yourself

perplexed about why someone who is unassuming who -- there's no need to assert this authority. it's kind of there in his being. while he isn't outside wardly charismatic in a way tony blair or barack obama is, when you're in a room with him he's clearly the person who counts, the person who's going to be the change agent. it's a leadership role which i think is going t really behoove the country, really define his prime ministership. he ia man of the left. when he discusses his working class background. his endless references to his father being a tool maker. they went through hard times and he's remembered that. if he's in politics for anything, it's to do two or three things.

one to kind of improve the lives of working class families like the one that he is a member of and two, a passionate belief in justice, not just legal justi, human rights justice. he was a human rights lawyer but actually social justice. he really does believe in that and i once tried to interest him in the notion -- instead of talking about socialism, you should talk about fellowship in the way that climatley used to talk about it. he perked up. he was liking the idea but it's an intriguing kind of window into his mindset. he's not an ideologist. he's not really -- ha ha -- ben: it's really good to talk to

you. >> good afternoon. cheers. ben: friend of keir starmer talking about who the man is himself. sorry to cut him off in his prime but it's been a day of comings and going, don'tous event on the -- momentous event on the street behind me. all those polls telling us that labour was on track for that landside election victory. here's our political editor chris mason. [cheers] >> just look at our new prime minister's face undisguised joy. keir stormer and his wife victoria arrive in their new street to be greeted by flag waving lour activists. 27 years since we've witnessed a

moment like there, labour winning from opposition and assuming power. labour very good at losing elections. this is one that bucks the trend. they've won and won big. >> i have just returned from buckingham palace, where i accepted an invitation from his majesty the king to form the next government of this great nation. [cheers] i want to thank the outgoing prime minister richie sunak, his achievement as the first british-asian prime minister of our country, the extra effort that that will have required should not be underestimated by anyone but now our country has voted decisively for change. whether you voted labour or not. in fact, especially if you did not, i say to you directly, my

government mr. serve you. >> but hang on, he admitted. >> changing a country is not like flicking a switch. the world is now a more volatile place. this will take a while but have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately. >> and he promised -- >> to restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance. tread more lightly on your lives and unite our country. [cheers] >> jubilation, yes, but with terms and conditions. the slogan may have been change but he admits it will take time. >> keir stormer entering 10 downing street as prime minister for the very first time. >> and with that, the business of governing begins. arriving this afternoon to join

the cabinets, the new deputy prime minister angela rayner, the first woman to be chancer ever, rachel reeves and the new foreign secretary, david lammy. all of this began to unfold at 10:00 last night. >> blamey, take a look and take in those numbers. >> a nocturnal political earthquake. massive labour gains in england, scotland and wales, colossal conservative losses. just lookt their faces. in norfolk, a former prime minister became a former m.p. the conservative participant chairman richard holman had a nervous wait and won by just 20 votes. the former cbs net minister wasn't so lucky and lost. the liberal democrat leader ed

davey couldn't resist a spot of dad dancing to boost his party spot to 71m.p.'s. the scottish national party is left with just nine dates. just five m.p.'s, nigel farag and the green participant won four seats. co-leader beating a labour front piher in the process. >> bristol, you made history today. >> back in westminster, it's just over six weeks since i last got soaked in downing street when the election campaign began. it's going to be a busy morning for the elector. it was a splash of deja vu as there was rain there this morning as richie sunak left. >> to the country, i wouldike to say first and foremost, i am sorry. i have given this job my all but

you have sent a clear signal that the government of the united kingdom must change and yours is the only judgment that matters. i have heard your anger, your dispoint and i take responsibility forhis loss. >> he offered these words about keir starmer >> whatever our disagreements in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited marine who i respect. >> and these were his last public remarks in highoffs. >> this is a difficult day at the end of a number of difficult days but i leave this job honored to have been your prime minister. this is the best country in the world and it is thanks entirely to you, the british people. the true source of all our achiefs , our strength -- achievements, our strengths and our greatness. thank you. >> in truth, he tried everything

to revive conservative core nuance but had -- founes but had failed, leaving his party to catastrophic defeat and so leading to this moment. as keir stormer get used to regal small talk and the country get used to its fourth prime minister in under two years. chris mason, "bbc news," westminster. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it,

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