New Delhi:

Britain’s newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning and said he stood ready to conclude a Free Trade Agreement that worked for both sides, Downing Street said.

India and the UK have been negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for over two years with a Conservative Party-led government but the talks were stalled in the 14th round amidst the general election cycles in both countries.

It is now expected to be picked up by the new Starmer-led Labour government, which was voted in with a landslide this week.

According to the Downing Street readout of the newly-elected UK Prime Minister’s Indo-Pacific-related international calls on Saturday, the call with Modi seems to have been the first followed by Japan and Australia.

“The leaders exchanged congratulations on their respective election wins, and reflected on the strength of the relationship between the UK and India,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

“Discussing the Free Trade Agreement, the Prime Minister said he stood ready to conclude a deal that worked for both sides. The leaders hoped to meet at the earliest opportunity,” the spokesperson added.

Pleased to speak with @Keir_Starmer. Congratulated him on being elected as the Prime Minister of the UK. We remain committed to deepening Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and robust - economic ties for the progress and prosperity of our peoples and global good.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 6, 2024

Both sides have been working towards clinching a pact to enhance the GBP 38.1 billion bilateral trading partnership since January 2022, when Boris Johnson was the British prime minister.

The talks have since had to contend with political turmoil in the UK that first led to a short-lived Liz Truss premiership followed by Rishi Sunak as Britain’s first prime minister of Indian heritage.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump.
| Photo Credit: AP

Former U.S. President Donald Trump celebrated the election of fellow populist Nigel Farage to Britain’s parliament on Friday, neglecting to mention the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

Mr. Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won the third largest vote haul, but under Britain’s electoral system it took just five seats while Mr. Starmer’s Labour party swept into office with a landslide.

“Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country!” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Mr. Farage is a long-standing ally of Mr. Trump, who has dubbed the divorced father-of-four “Mr Brexit” and previously said the British populist would have done a “great job” as the U.K.’s ambassador to Washington.

Mr. Farage is a champion of Brexit who was elected to parliament on his eighth attempt and has made no secret of his desire to take over the now-main opposition Conservative party, which was trounced at the polls by Labour.

“There is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,” he said after a comfortable win in Clacton, eastern England.

The result bucks a rightward trend among Britain’s closest allies, with the far-right National Rally in France eyeing power and Mr. Trump looking set for a return in the United States.

Mr. Farage’s win will likely embolden the attention-grabbing populist figurehead in his long-term aim of staging a “takeover” of the Conservatives.

Millions of their voters appeared to have already switched their support to Reform, handing the Tories one of their worst-ever results.

An initial exit poll caused a stir Thursday night after predicting Reform would secure 13 seats — far exceeding forecasts in the latter stages of the campaign that it would win just a handful.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer stand outside Downing Street 10, following the results of the election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Several world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday congratulated Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer after his Labour Party stormed to power after 14 years.

The Labour Party led by Mr. Starmer won the U.K. general election in a landslide. He became the new Prime Minister after meeting King Charles III who asked him to form the next government. The Conservative Party led by Rishi Sunak lost 250 seats, its worst-ever defeat.

Mr. Modi offered “heartiest congratulations and best wishes” to Mr. Starmer on his remarkable victory.

“I look forward to our positive and constructive collaboration to further strengthen the India-U.K. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in all areas, fostering mutual growth and prosperity,” Mr. Modi said.

Mr. Modi also thanked outgoing PM Sunak for his “admirable leadership of the U.K.”.

“Thank you @RishiSunak for your admirable leadership of the U.K., and your active contribution to deepen the ties between India and the U.K. during your term in office. Best wishes to you and your family for the future,” Mr. Modi said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also congratulated Mr. Starmer on his “resounding” election victory. Albanese added that he was looking forward to working constructively with the incoming Labour government.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni congratulated Mr. Starmer on his election victory. “The state of relations between Italy and the United Kingdom is excellent and I am sure that we will continue to cultivate a strong and reliable collaborative relationship between our great Nations, in the interests of our citizens and in line with common strategic objectives,” she posted on X.

Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre offered his congratulations to Mr. Starmer and the Labour Party on the “historic election win”. “I’m looking forward to continuing our close cooperation between the UK and Norway, including on the energy transition, our common security and trade,” he said further.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a photo of himself and Mr. Starmer on X as he congratulated him on a “historic” election victory. “Lots of work ahead to build a more progressive, fair future for people on both sides of the Atlantic. Let’s get to it, my friend,” Mr. Trudeau wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Mr. Starmer and the Labour Party in a post on X.

“Ukraine and the United Kingdom have been and will continue to be reliable allies through thick and thin. We will continue to defend and advance our common values of life, freedom, and a rules-based international order,” he said.

“I wish the incoming government every success both in domestic affairs and in solidifying the U.K.’s leadership on the world stage. I look forward to working closely together on strengthening the Ukraine-U.K. partnership and restoring international peace and security,” Mr. Zelenskyy added.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, in a congratulatory message to Mr. Stramer, said that he looked forward to working with the new government of the U.K. to strengthen long-standing Nepal-U.K. relations.

Britain’s King Charles III, right, shakes hands with Keir Starmer where he invited the Labour Party leader to become prime minister and to form a new government, following the landslide general election victory for the Labour Party, in London, Friday, July 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.K.’s Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won the July 4 general election by a landslide, securing 412 (+211) seats with outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party down to 121 (-250) seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. Nevertheless, the vote shares told a story of a more modest victory for Labour, while confirming the Conservative defeat, with Labour getting 35% and the Conservatives 24%. Labour had consistently polled 20 points head of the Conservatives in opinion polls.

“In many ways, this looks more like an election the Conservatives have lost than one Labour has won,” political scientist and psephologist John Curtice wrote on the BBC’s website.

Following Labour’s victory, King Charles III, the country’s monarch, appointed Mr. Starmer as the new Prime Minister of the U.K.

Standing outside London’s iconic Tate Modern in the early hours of Friday morning, the 61-year-old Mr. Starmer spoke of change — Labour’s central theme, reflecting “a changed Labour Party” and a change to 14 years of Tory government.

“And now we can look forward, walk into the morning, the sunlight of hope, pale at first, but getting stronger through the day, shining once again on a country with the opportunity — after 14 years — to get its future back,” he said.

Also Read | U.K. General Election 2024 LIVE updates

In Yorkshire, the outgoing Prime Minister Mr. Sunak, who managed to retain his own Richmond seat, conceded and took responsibility for the results. Mr. Sunak’s political future has been in doubt as some polls projected that he would lose his own seat.

“The Labour Party has won this general election and I’ve caught Sir Kier Starmer to congratulate him on his victory,” Mr. Sunak said, adding, that power would change hands “in a peaceful and orderly manner”.

Later, as he left No. 10 Downing Street for the last time, Mr. Sunak apologised to his supporters and said he would step down from the post of party Leader. Mr. Sunak, a 44-year-old father of two girls, asked the public to support Mr. Starmer and his family as they transition into No. 10. He also made a reference to his being the country’s first non-White British Prime Minister.

“One of the most remarkable things about Britain is just how unremarkable it is,” he said. “That two generations after my grandparents came here with little, I could become Prime Minister, and that I could watch my two young daughters light Diwali [Deepavali] candles on the steps in Downing Street,” he said.

Mr. Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murthy, were then driven to Buckingham Palace, to cheers and boos from onlookers. Mr. Sunak then offered his resignation to King Charles III.

With Mr. Sunak’s departure, the question of party leadership remains open. Former Leader of the House of Commons and a possible candidate for the leadership of the party, Penny Mordaunt, lost her Portsmouth North seat to Labour by a wafer-thin margin of 780 votes, ruling out her leadership run. Another possible contender, Jacob Reese-Mogg, also lost his seat as did several other high-profile Conservatives, including former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, who lost his Hertfordshire seat. The education secretary, culture secretary, and justice secretary also lost their seats.

Across the Irish Sea, in Northern Ireland (NI), the Republican (i.e., seeking a united Ireland), Sinn Fein became the largest NI party in Westminster, retaining seven seats, while the Democratic and Unionist Party (DUP), won just five seats, a loss of three seats since 2019. Sinn Fein has had a majority in the NI Assembly since 2019 and is in favour of a Irish unification referendum by 2030.             

 In Scotland, the Scottish National Party woke up to bad news on Friday, winning just nine seats, a loss of 38. The pro-independence party, which has been governing Scotland for 17 years, lost the Westminster seats in the two major cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, won his seat of Islington North as an independent candidate. He said his victory was a warning to the incoming government that “dissent cannot be crushed without consequences”. Mr. Starmer suspended Mr. Corbyn from the party in 2020 for his response to an inquiry into antisemitism within the party. The Labour party lost four seats on Thursday to pro-Gaza independents. After Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s counter-attack on Gaza, Mr. Starmer’s positions on the manner of Israel’s retaliation were criticized for being too soft on Israel. Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jonathan Ashworth was among those who list his seat (South Leicester).

Friday morning was good for several other parties. The Liberal Democrats gained 63 seats, taking their tally to 71 seat. The Green Party won a record four seats. The Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant, Reform U.K. party won four seats, and its leader, Nigel Farage, won a seat after seven unsuccessful attempts. Mr. Farage was the de facto leader of Brexit movement.

“Conservative support fell most heavily in seats they were trying to defend. This is primarily the result of a large increase in Reform’s support, especially in places where there was a high Leave [the European Union] vote in 2016,” Mr. Curtice said.

Mr. Farage described the results as just the beginning of something larger.

“Believe me, folks, this is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,“ he said.

New Delhi:

Out with the old, and in with the new (sort of), UK voters said Friday, handing Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives a thumping defeat in the general election, stripping it off nearly 250 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. And Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour has been handed the keys to the castle.

Mr Starmer and his ‘new’ Labour will now form the next government. Addressing a cheering crowd of party faithfuls at a dawn victory rally in central London, he declared the UK “gets its future back”.

The scale of the Tories defeat is singular; in power for 14 years, the party was routed in Wales and Scotland, and saw some of its biggest leaders, including ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss, beaten.

Labour’s Landslide

But perhaps the most chastening blow – the BBC is reporting the Conservatives have lost seats, in the shire counties of England, that they have held since the early 20th century. For example, Labour’s Joe Morris beat the Tory’s Guy Opperman to end the Tory’s 100-year hold on the Hexham seat.

READ | “I Am Sorry”: Rishi Sunak Concedes Defeat In UK Polls

The Conservatives are set for one of their worst ever returns in a general election, and Labour, with over 400 seats, its best. Exit polls had predicted just such a scenario, giving Mr Starmer 405 seats.

Conservatives’ Collapse

Rishi Sunak, the outgoing PM, called for an early election in May.

The warning signs were present then; indeed, they had been present for several weeks, if not months, prior, as UK voters battled a cost-of-living crisis, a growing immigration problem, and poor infrastructure and healthcare, among other issues, and the Tories a serious image problem.

READ | Labour Sweeps UK Polls, Rishi Sunak’s Part’s First Loss Since 2010

At that point the Conservatives – asking the British public for permission to install a sixth Prime Minister since 2010 – were already 20 points behind a rejuvenated Labour, but Mr Sunak seemed to believe he could close and overhaul the gap. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

Why Labour Beat Conservative?

Take your pick. But the crumbling NHS, or National Health Service, and the state of the economy, and attendant concerns like price rise, are high on the list of reasons for the defeat.

A poll by IPSOS Issues Index in June said concerns over slashing of funding for the NHS – a free public healthcare scheme that any other country would love to have – was top of the list, followed by the economy, immigration, price rise, housing and schools, defence and anti-terrorism, and crime.

Mr Sunak scored poorly on all these points, including overseeing the country’s lowest growth rate since the early 19th century and a steep cost-of-living increase, the highest in 41 years.

The British economy has slowed significantly over the past decade, even accounting for the global crisis triggered by the Covid pandemic. GDP per capita grew just 4.3 per cent from 2007 to 2023.

In the previous 16 years that figure was a massive 46 per cent.

This meant incomes stagnated.

A report by the nonpartisan Centres for Cities research institute indicated Britons, on average, had £10,200 less to save or spend between 2010 and 2022, compared to 1998-2010 growth rates.

And the UK’s national debt – £2.7 trillion – is higher than at any point since the 1960s.

There did seem to be some relief soon; in May the International Monetary Fund spoke of a “soft landing” for the economy, and upgraded the growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7.

And it was, perhaps, on the back of that expectation Mr Sunak called for the early election.

The NHS is seen by many to be the crown in the British government’s public services.

The Conservatives had repeatedly stressed the importance of the NHS, but that concern seemed not to translate into on-ground support for doctors, nurses, and medical professionals.

Budgetary allocations under the Tories paint a clear picture. Since they came to power in 2010 healthcare spending has grown by an average of 2.8 per cent per year, compared to 3.6 per cent in the past 50. This includes the period of the pandemic.

In April there were an estimated 7.6 million people waiting for treatment under the NHS scheme, of which over 50,000 had been on the list for more than a year. The median wait time was 14 weeks.

The number of people waiting for medical aid, including those with serious conditions, has tripled under Conservative rule, according to data from the NHS published by Al Jazeera.

Brexit had its say too, with movement restrictions meaning medical professionals from mainland Europe could either not be hired or chose not to sign up. As horrible as this sounds, this was good news for India, with the NHS turning to its former colony to fill over 2,000 doctors’ posts.

Immigration was also an issue. Mr Sunak’s government had promised to crack down on illegal entrants into the UK, but its Rwanda policy – supposed to act as a major deterrent – failed to deliver.

In fact, two years after its announcement not one plane has taken off for the African nation.

According to Sky News, the Conservatives have spent over £300 million on this scheme, which they said would deter illegal immigrants entering the UK on small boats across the English Channel.

Under this policy, those caught would be sent to Rwanda while they apply for asylum.

As of March-end a total of 1.18 lakh people are waiting for an initial decision on their application.

The rising cost of living and skyrocketing house prices, as well as steep increases in rental prices, have also been a problem the Conservatives seemed not to be able to control.

Truss, Johnson’s Contributions

It wasn’t just Mr Sunak’s failures that led to the Conservatives’ downfall.

Boris Johnson was elected as the Tories’ leader and the PM in July 2019, shortly before the pandemic struck. His dishevelled appearance and chaotic leadership precipitated a revolt by his ministers and, of course, the ‘Partygate’ scandal that referred to parties at 10, Downing Street during a lockdown.

Mr Johnson resigned in June last year following an investigation that he called a “witch hunt”.

He was followed by Ms Truss – the UK’s fourth female PM and its shortest-serving leader.

READ | UK In Crisis: Why Country Has Seen 3 PMs In 3 Years

Ms Truss – who lost her South West Norfolk seat – faced criticism for the way it handled the economy, including a controversial mini-budget that led to market turmoil. Her leadership was further undermined by U-turns on policy and a loss of confidence among MPs.

What Now For Labour?

Mr Starmer’s leadership has been pivotal in Labour’s revival.

Since taking up the role in early 2020, he has repositioned the party to the centre, and fixed problems within the party that include in-fighting and anti-Semitism. 

Looking forward, he will want to avoid repeats of the Tories’ mistakes, including October 2022, when Ms Truss’ government proposed unfunded tax cuts that spooked markets and tanked the pound.

That ill-advised move cost her her job.

“We did it. Thank you truly… you have changed our country,” Mr Starmer told triumphant supporters at a victory rally in central London. “(But) a mandate like this comes with a great responsibility… Today we start the next chapter… begin the work of change, the mission of national renewal, and start to rebuild.”

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On the eve of polls opening in the UK general election, Keir Starmer allowed himself a moment to reflect on how far he had come since he became leader of the Labour Party four-and-a-half years ago. Back then, the party was reeling from one of the worst defeats in its 100-year history.

“The optimists said it will take 10 years to fix this party and get it back,” he told reporters ahead of a final rally in the East Midlands. “The pessimists said you’re never going to fix this party, it’s never going to be in government again.” adding “Here we are.”

He has now led the Labour Party to victory, on track for the biggest majority in Parliament since at least Tony Blair’s New Labour landslide in 1997.

The UK’s presumptive prime minister has far outperformed the expectations of his chances when he took over from the hard-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2020. Bland, boring, “no Tony Blair,” as focus groups often describe him, this relative newcomer to the world of politics has, in part, been a beneficiary of circumstances.

Boris Johnson’s “partygate” scandal and Liz Truss’s “mini-budget” – which tanked the pound – came at the tail-end of years of Conservative austerity that left deep cuts to many public services. All have contributed to the result we have now seen in the British general election. But Starmer has had his part to play too, demonstrating a quiet ruthlessness in changing his party, purging the Corbynites, even expelling Corbyn himself, and bringing it into a position to win and govern again.

“It feels good, I have to be honest,” Starmer told Labour supporters in London after the party crossed the crucial 326-seat threshold in the House of Commons, adding that he knew “a mandate like this comes with a great responsibility.”

He’ll now have to show whether those same skills that got him into 10 Downing St. will help him resolve a staggering list of challenges. Britons are bruised by the impact of Brexit, the pandemic and a historic squeeze on living standards. His government faces a more dangerous world and has little money to spend on improving the situation at home without raising broad-based taxes, something he’s said he doesn’t want to do.

Despite being known as “Sir Keir” – he was knighted for his legal career before entering politics – the UK’s new prime minister had humble beginnings, something he has been at pains to remind voters throughout the election campaign. He grew up, as he often recounts, in a “pebble-dashed” semi-detached house in Oxted, a London commuter town in the Surrey countryside. He was one of four children to a toolmaker father and a mother with a debilitating autoimmune condition, which meant she had to give up her work as a nurse while Starmer was a child.

Starmer’s father raised his four children and looked after his sick wife on his own, and money was often tight. “I remember when our phone was cut off because we couldn’t pay the bill,” Starmer has recalled during the campaign. “How hard it was to make ends meet.”

The young Starmer was given a leg-up in life by attending Reigate Grammar, a state school, where he secured the grades to become the first in his family to attend university. He studied law at Leeds, graduating with honors, and got accepted to Oxford University to do a BCL – a prestigious year-long graduate law course. As a young man in London in the late 1980s, he lived in a “party flat” where there was sometimes vomit in the bathtub, hosting friends into the early hours and writing radical treatises for niche left-leaning publications. But by day he was climbing the ranks to become a respected human rights lawyer.

Starmer, who has denied being the inspiration for the dashing human rights lawyer Mark Darcy in the book and film Bridget Jones’ Diary, became known for his pro bono work, including defending individuals in the Caribbean against the death penalty. He had a brush with national fame for defending two activists, Helen Steel and David Morris, a gardener and a former postman, who sued for libel by McDonald’s for distributing leaflets criticizing the fast food chain, in what became known as the ‘McLibel’ case. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002, a few months before his 40th birthday.

Keir Starmer as Director of Public Prosecutions, in 2010.

The following year, Starmer took on a role that would rewrite his theory of change: human rights adviser to the Policing Board in Northern Ireland. His job was to ensure that the new police service, formed after the 1998 peace agreement, commanded the trust of all communities. Before this role, Starmer had seen himself as railing against the system from the outside. This was his first experience of going inside an organization to deliver change. He found this new way was far more effective.

He took on a major role leading after that, becoming director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013. The role put him in charge of delivering criminal justice in the UK, running a large organization of thousands of staff and lawyers during a period of major budget cuts. He led the organization when it successfully prosecuted senior media figures for phone hacking and politicians for fiddling with their expenses.

No one was surprised when the country’s former top prosecutor entered the world of politics. After his time as DPP ended, Starmer stood for election in the safe Labour seat of Holborn and St. Pancras in the May 2015 general election, expecting to be attorney general in Ed Miliband’s Cabinet. Instead, he went straight to the opposition benches and joined a Labour parliamentary party tearing itself apart after a shock defeat.

During the Jeremy Corbyn years Starmer, a remainer, rose through the shadow ministerial ranks to become shadow Brexit secretary. While colleagues like Rachel Reeves refused to serve under Corbyn or resigned from the party altogether over antisemitism, Starmer stayed. But by March 2018, Starmer and his allies – frustrated by the antisemitism problem and by Corbyn’s foreign policy stances – knew he would stand for party leader when the time came. For nearly two years, they held secret meetings every Monday morning to make sure he was ready for a leadership campaign when the time arose.

The time came in 2020. Starmer ran and won, a leadership campaign centered on 10 pledges to Labour members, essentially to retain the radical spirit of the Corbynite agenda with promises such as renationalizing, rail, mail, energy, and water. He memorably paid tribute to “my friend Jeremy Corbyn.”

Since taking over the leadership, Starmer has expelled Corbyn from the party, introduced mandatory antisemitism training, and vigorously vetted, and sometimes imposed, candidates who will be loyal to his leadership. Encouraged by his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and other close aides from the party’s right-wing, he has instilled a tight fiscal discipline, ditched almost all of his original leadership pledges, and draped his party in the union flag and embraced the language of security, discipline, and patriotism.

It has not all been plain sailing. He lost the Hartlepool by-election – seeing a safe Labour seat fall to Johnson’s Conservatives – early into his leadership in 2020, after which he considered resigning. The experience saw him fire some advisers, appoint new people, and hardened his determination to overhaul his party.

More recently, Starmer suffered a protracted and public disagreement among his top team over whether to ditch his party’s pledge to spend £28 billion ($36 billion) per year on green infrastructure, culminating in a major reversal. He has faced criticism and lost votes over an LBC radio interview in October in which he said Israel “has the right” to withhold power and water from Gaza, which he later apologized for.

The team of advisers around him has been referred to as a “boys’ club,” accused of heavy-handedness in their purging of the Corbynite wing of the party and in their wider attitude to the party’s elected representatives.

While his dissenters balk at how different he is from the man who stood for leader four and a half years ago, Starmer is proud of that difference. “I changed my party,” he says. “Now I want to change the country.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)