Premiership of Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 5 July 2024 when he accepted an invitation from King Charles III to form a government, succeeding Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party. As prime minister, Starmer is serving concurrently as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union.
Starmer, who has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2020, was appointed prime minister after the Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative governance and with the smallest share of the electoral vote of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote began in 1830.
Under Starmer's premiership, the government has ended certain winter fuel payments for around 10 million people, implemented an early-release scheme for thousands of prisoners to decrease prison overcrowding, and settled a number of public sector strikes. Starmer has announced a Border Security Command in replacement of the Rwanda asylum plan and a National Violent Disorder Programme to the 2024 riots, as well as reforms to workers' rights. On foreign policy Starmer has supported Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war and Gaza war.
On 4 January 2020, Keir Starmer announced his candidacy for the Labour Party leadership election. By 8 January, it was reported that he had gained enough nominations from Labour MPs and MEPs to get onto the ballot paper, and that the trade union Unison was backing him. Unison, with 1.3 million members, said Starmer was the best placed candidate to unite the party and regain public trust. He also gained support from former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
During the leadership election, Starmer ran a left-wing platform. He positioned himself in opposition to austerity, stating that the outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn was "right" to position Labour as the "party of anti-austerity". He indicated he would continue with the Labour policy of scrapping tuition fees as well as pledging "common ownership" of rail, mail, energy and water companies and called for ending outsourcing in the NHS, local governments and the justice system. Starmer was announced as the winner of the leadership contest on 4 April 2020, defeating rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, with 56.2% of the vote in the first round. As Leader of the Opposition, contrary to his leadership campaign, he moved the party toward the political centre, and also emphasised the project of eliminating antisemitism within the party. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.
On 22 May 2024, Rishi Sunak unexpectedly announced that a general election would be held on 4 July 2024. Labour entered the general election with a large lead over the Conservative Party in opinion polls, and the potential scale of the party's victory was a topic of discussion during the campaign period. In June 2024, Starmer released the Labour Party manifesto Change, which focuses on economic growth, planning system reforms, infrastructure, what Starmer describes as "clean energy", healthcare, education, childcare, and strengthening workers' rights. It pledges a new publicly owned energy company (Great British Energy), a "Green Prosperity Plan", reducing patient waiting times in the NHS, and renationalisation of the railway network (Great British Railways). It includes wealth creation and "pro-business and pro-worker" policies. The manifesto also pledged to give votes to 16 year olds, reform the House of Lords, and to tax private schools, with money generated going into improving state education.
In July 2024, Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative government with Labour becoming the largest party in the House of Commons. Labour achieved a 174-seat simple majority and a total of 411 seats, the party's third-best result in terms of seat share following the 1997 and 2001 general elections. The party had the most seats in England for the first time since 2005, in Scotland for the first time since 2010, and retained its status as the largest party in Wales.
In his victory speech, Starmer thanked party workers for their hard work – including nearly five years of revamping and rebranding Labour in the face of Conservative dominance – and urged them to savour the moment, but warned them of challenges ahead and pledged his government would work for "national renewal":
As the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons, Starmer was appointed as prime minister by King Charles III on 5 July 2024, becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown, the first one to win a general election since Tony Blair, and the first Labour government formed during the reign of Charles III. He and his wife Victoria Starmer were driven from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street. Starmer stopped the car on the way back from the palace and went on a walkabout outside Downing Street to meet cheering crowds. In his first speech as prime minister, Starmer paid tribute to the previous prime minister Rishi Sunak, saying "His achievement as the first British Asian Prime Minister of our country should not be underestimated by anyone," and also recognised "the dedication and hard work he brought to his leadership" but said that the people of Britain had voted for change:
The 2024 State Opening of Parliament outlined 39 pieces of legislation that Labour proposed to introduced in the months ahead, including bills to renationalise the railways, to strengthen the rights of workers, tackle illegal immigration, reform the House of Lords, and undertake a programme to speed up the delivery of "high quality infrastructure" and housing. In addition, a number of bills proposed by Sunak's Conservative administration were also included, notably the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which had appeared in the 2023 King's Speech, but had been abandoned after the election was called.
Skills England is a new government agency that will be created by the Skills England Bill. The agency will increase flexibility within the skills training area, to properly cater for skills shortages within regional economies, and to ensure the UK trains its own workforce. Starmer launched a Child Poverty Taskforce, in which expert officials from across government would work together on how best to support more than four-million children living in poverty.
Starmer went on a tour of the four countries of the UK and met with the leader of the Scottish Labour Party Anas Sarwar, and also met with First Minister of Scotland John Swinney at the official residence of the First Minister, Bute House. He also met with mayors including Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan. On 18 July 2024, Starmer chaired the 4th European Political Community Summit. On 24 July 2024, Starmer attended his first Prime Minister's Questions.
One of Starmer's first acts as prime minister was cancelling the controversial Rwanda asylum plan, claiming it to be "dead and buried." Home secretary Yvette Cooper started setting out the first steps towards establishing a Border Security Command, to tackle smuggling gangs which facilitate illegal migrant crossings over the English Channel. The command would be funded by money previously earmarked for the Rwanda plan and would be responsible for coordinating the activities of Immigration Enforcement, MI5, the Border Force and the National Crime Agency in tackling smuggling gangs which facilitate illegal migrant crossings over the English Channel.
The new office of Border Security Commander was also established, whose remit would be to lead the new command and its members, with the government expecting the appointment of the first officeholder to be made in the coming weeks. A team in the Home Office was tasked with setting out the remit of the command, as well as its governance structure and its strategic direction.
Starmer has suggested that he favours green policies to tackle climate change and decarbonise the British economy. He has committed to eliminate fossil fuels from the UK electricity grid by 2030. In 2021, Starmer and Rachel Reeves pledged that a Labour government would invest an extra £28 billion a year in green industries; in June 2023 this was changed to £28 billion per year by the middle of their first term of government.
Since 2022, Reeves has adhered to "modern supply-side economics", an economic policy which focuses on infrastructure, education and labour supply by rejecting tax cuts and deregulation. In May 2023, Reeves coined the term "securonomics" to refer to her version of this economic policy, originally in a public address at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. It was heavily inspired by US president Joe Biden's economic policy, particularly his Inflation Reduction Act.
Securonomics is based on the belief that globalisation has failed to achieve its stated aims and that economies in the Western world must adapt in response. Reeves suggested that the active state is part of an "emerging global consensus" which will replace the neoliberal economic consensus, and that economic policy must be driven by the need for security.
On taking office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Reeves stated that since there is "not a huge amount of money" her focus will be on "unlocking" private-sector investment, as she believes "private-sector investment is the lifeblood of a successful economy." She made her first statement as Chancellor two days later, announcing measures she said were aimed to grow the economy. On 29 July 2024, Reeves conducted a spending review, arguing there was a need to make "necessary and urgent decisions" because of an "unfunded" and "undisclosed" overspending of £21.9bn by the previous Conservative government. Among the decisions she made were to axe winter fuel payments for pensioners not receiving pension credit (roughly around 10 million people), which received widespread criticism. She also announced the cancellation of several infrastructure projects, and selling surplus public sector buildings and land. Reeves first budget took place on 30 October 2024.
In January 2025, Reeves announced plans for a new runway at Heathrow airport as part of a push for “growth”. Regulators were also asked to “tear down regulatory barriers” to promote economic growth. On 25 February 2025, Starmer announced plans to increase the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027—paid for by cutting the UK’s international aid budget to 0.3%. Save the Children described the cuts as “a betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable children and the UK’s national interest”.
The October 2024 budget was presented to the House of Commons by Reeves on 30 October 2024. In the budget, she announced tax rises worth £40 billion, the biggest tax rise at a budget since 1993. Amongst the measures she announced were an increase in employers' National Insurance to 15% on salaries above £5,000 from April 2025, income tax thresholds to rise in-line with inflation after 2028, changes to farm inheritance tax meaning that the inheritance tax of 20% would effectively apply to rural estates above the value of £1,000,000 from April 2026, and a rise in the single bus fare cap to £3 from January 2025. The OBR forecast that the budget would mean the tax burden would be set to its highest ever level in recorded history. The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, accused Reeves of further undermining trust in politicians. Reeves later said that it was not a budget she would want to repeat, and accepted that the tax rises would likely hit wage growth for workers.
Shortly after taking office, Starmer said that there were "too many prisoners", and described the previous government as having acted with "almost beyond recklessness". In order to manage the prison overcrowding, his Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced the implementation of an early release scheme which allowed for prisoners in England and Wales to be released after serving 40% of their sentences rather than the 50% previously introduced under the last government. Over 1,700 prisoners were released in September, with further releases expected in the following year. One prisoner released early under the scheme was charged with sexual assault relating to an alleged offence against a woman on the same day he was freed. Starmer has defended the releasing of prisoners, and accused the previous government of having "broke the prison system."
Starmer and Reeves have refused to scrap the benefit cap introduced by the Cameron–Clegg coalition, citing financial reasons. The cap was introduced in 2013 as part of the coalition government's wide-reaching welfare reform agenda which included the introduction of Universal Credit and reforms of housing benefit and disability benefits. Starmer's government cited wide public support for the measure, despite it being highly controversial. The benefit cap primarily affects families with children, high rents, or both. By 2024, the year Starmer and Reeves entered government, two-thirds of the families affected by the cap were single-parent families, half of which had a child under five.
On 23 July 2024, Labour withdrew the whip from 7 of its MPs who had supported an amendment tabled by the Scottish National Party (SNP)'s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn to scrap it, with Flynn stating that scrapping the cap would immediately raise 300,000 children out of poverty. MPs rejected the SNP amendment by 363 votes to 103. The seven Labour MPs suspended for six months were John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana, all of whom then sat as independents. Burgon, Byrne, Long-Bailey and Hussain had the Labour whip restored on 5 February 2025, while Sultana, McDonnell and Begum continue to sit as independents. Starmer launched a Child Poverty Taskforce, in which expert officials from across government would work together on how best to support more than four-million children living in poverty.
On 24 October 2024, the government announced a ban on the sale of single-use vapes, effective from June 2025, in an effort to address environmental concerns and the rising prevalence of vaping among children. On 5 November 2024, the government introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, aiming to protect public health and reduce the harm caused by smoking. The bill proposed measures to phase out tobacco sales for those under 15, extend the indoor smoking ban to outdoor areas and introduce stricter regulations on vaping, including a ban on vape advertising and limitations on flavours and packaging.
The bill was supported by health organisations, including Cancer Research UK, Action on Smoking and Health and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health .In an August 2024 YouGov poll, 61% of UK adults supported the efforts to phase out smoking by banning it for people born after 1 January 2009, while 27% opposed it. 81% supported the banning of disposable vapes, while 13% opposed it.
Starmer is a longtime supporter of the campaign for assisted dying or doctor-assisted voluntary euthanasia in the UK. On 13 March 2024, Starmer pledged to give MPs a vote on assisted suicide if Labour won the 2024 general election, which they did. He phoned pro-assisted suicide campaigner Esther Rantzen and said to her: "I'm personally in favour of changing the law. I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment. Esther, I can give you that commitment right now... For people who are going through this or are likely to go through it in the next few months or years, this matters hugely and delay just prolongs the agony."
In September 2024, Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Spen Valley, was drawn first in the ballot for private members' bills. She announced on 3 October 2024 that she would introduce a bill on assisted dying, and on 16 October 2024, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was introduced to the House of Commons. The full text of the bill (as presented for second reading) was published on 11 November 2024. Starmer acknowledged the vote for Leadbeater's bill as being "very important". Additionally, Starmer noted parliament's future intentions to strengthen NHS care for all needs, "including end-of-life care."
In Government, Starmer reaffirmed the outgoing Conservative government's commitment of no new HIV cases in the United Kingdom by 2030. On 10 February 2025 Starmer, alongside singer and HIV activist Beverley Knight and Terrence Higgins Trust chief executive Richard Angell, recorded himself taking a rapid HIV home test. This made Starmer the first serving British Prime Minister and serving G7 leader to take a test on camera.
The government's decision on 29 July 2024 to abolish the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners gave rise to a significant backlash. Negative reaction came from Labour MPs, opposition MPs, trade unions, pensioner organisations, and the general public.
On 5 September 2024, Starmer conceded to demands and promised a binding vote in the Commons on whether the changes to the fuel payment would be implemented. The motion was debated on 10 September, and in the vote that followed, 348 MPs backed the government and 228 supported the motion. With a majority of 120 to the government, the policy will be implemented. A total of 52 Labour MPs, including 7 ministers, did not participate in the vote.
Following the announcement of this policy, the Ipsos monthly tracker poll published in September showed that Starmer was more unpopular with the public than he had been for three years. 46% of voters had an unfavourable view of him. 32% of the poll's respondents had a favourable view of him, which was 6 points lower than it had been in August. The same poll showed Reeves being seen favourably had dropped 4 points since August to 23% and being seen unfavourably had increased by 9 points to 44%.
Following the commons vote, the results from a JL Partners/38 Degrees focus group of more than 100 people suggested that the new government was losing public support. The group comprised different age groups, regions, and voting intention. The most critical were older Labour voters, some younger voters were more sympathetic with the governments case, but most were critical of the policy.
A Savanta opinion poll commissioned by the Liberal Democrats party, and published on 29 October, found that 59% opposed the policy with 46% of Labour voters agreeing that Reeves was wrong to bring forward this policy while 35% agreed she was right. The poll also showed that 78% of people aged 55 and over said that Reeves should not cut the winter fuel payments.
A parody song,"Freezing This Christmas", by Sir Starmer and the Granny Harmers, reached number one in The Official Big Top 40 chart on 15 December 2024. The profits from the song, which lampoons Starmer's government's actions in abolishing the payment for all but the poorest pensioners, will go to charities supporting the elderly said Chris Middleton, the artist behind it.
On 29 July 2024, following a mass stabbing occurred at a dance studio in Southport in which Axel Rudakubana killed three children and injured ten others – eight of whom were children at a Taylor Swift–themed yoga and dance workshop. Starmer described the murders as horrendous and shocking and thanked emergency services for their swift response. He later wrote amid the riots across the country following the stabbing that those who had "hijacked the vigil for the victims" had "insulted the community as it grieves" and that rioters would feel the full force of the law. On 1 August, and following a meeting with senior police officers, Starmer announced the establishment of a national violent disorder programme to facilitate greater cooperation between police forces when dealing with violent disorder. On 4 August, Starmer said that rioters "will feel the full force of the law" and told them "You will regret taking part in this, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves". He added "I won't shy away from calling it what it is – far-right thuggery". Starmer later called an emergency response meeting of Cobra. After the Cobra meeting he announced the establishment of a "standing army" of specialist police officers to address the violence, and help bring it to an end.
Starmer rejected calls from some MPs – including Labour MP Diane Abbott, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Conservative Dame Priti Patel – to recall parliament to Westminster. Farage condemned the violence as having "no place in a functioning democracy" but suggested "soft policing" during Black Lives Matter protests had contributed to a "sense of injustice" and an impression of "two-tier policing". Patel called Farage's comments deeply misleading and "simply not relevant". She said: "There's a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worship. What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism." Patel also wrote to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, asking them to recall parliament.
After Starmer said "large social media companies and those who run them" were contributing to the disorder, Elon Musk, the owner of X, criticised him for not condemning all participants in the riots and only blaming the far-right. Musk also responded to a tweet which said the riots were due to "mass migration and open borders" by tweeting, "Civil war is inevitable". His comments were condemned by Starmer's official spokesman. Musk further said Starmer was responsible for a "two-tier" policing system which did not protect all communities in the United Kingdom, and subsequently shared a conspiracy theory that Starmer's government was planning to build detainment camps in the Falkland Islands to hold far-right rioters. In response, Starmer said: "my focus is on ensuring our communities are safe. That is my sole focus. I think it's very important for us all to support the police in what they're doing".
After Rudakubana's guilty plea on 20 January 2025, Cooper announced a public inquiry, stating that the victims' families "needed answers about what had happened leading up to the attack". This was followed by Starmer's promise to overhaul terrorism laws to reflect the type of non-ideological killings characterised by individuals like Rudakubana, stressing the threat from “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”. Significant attention was drawn to Prevent for failing to accept referrals of Rudakubana on the basis of him lacking a terrorist ideology. Although an emergency review found that Prevent had followed correct procedures on each referral, Cooper concluded “that too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology” in the programme. Cooper announced that there would be a review on the threshold at which Prevent intervenes, with senior lawyer David Anderson being assigned by Starmer as the Independent Prevent Commissioner to perform the review.
On 24 August 2024, The Times reported that, shortly after Starmer became the prime minister, Waheed Alli, Baron Alli, Starmer's biggest personal donor, had been given a security pass. The pass gave Alli unrestricted access to Downing Street, and he then hosted a party there for other Labour Party donors. This gave rise to suspicions of "cash for access" and claims of "cronyism". On 15 September 2024, reports emerged in the British media that Starmer had initially failed to declare £5,000 of gifts used to purchase clothes for his wife, Victoria Starmer. The gifts had been given by Lord Alli, who had also given Starmer a number of clothing-related gifts, including £2,435 worth of eyeglasses, and had given Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner gifts worth £3,550 of clothes in June 2024. It was subsequently reported that Starmer had accepted over £107,145 worth of gifts, benefits, and hospitality since the 2019 general election, including tickets to Arsenal F.C. matches and Taylor Swift concerts, two-and-a-half times more than any other MP. It was also reported that Health Secretary Wes Streeting had been gifted four Taylor Swift concert tickets, worth a total of £1,160, by The Football Association, and that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves had accepted £7,500 worth of clothes in 2024 from Juliet Rosenfeld, which were registered as donations "to support the shadow chancellor's office". On 17 September 10 Downing Street announced that Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg would not investigate the gifts.
On Friday 20 September, as the 2024 Labour Party Conference was set to begin, Starmer as well as Reeves and Rayner announced they would no longer accept clothes from donors. That weekend, The Mail on Sunday reported that Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson had received a £14,000 gift from Alli for her 40th birthday party. Phillipson defended the gift, saying that it had been used "to get people together in a professional context" ahead of her birthday party and that it had been properly declared in the register of interests. Phillipson also admitted to accepting Taylor Swift concert tickets, saying that it was "hard to say no". When Alli was asked about the controversy at the Conference by a Sky News reporter, he stated that he didn't want to be asked about it, saying that the questions were "not very nice." That same weekend, Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell stated that the government had "no plans" to change the rules on MP accepting gifts. Starmer subsequently admitted to accepting accommodation worth £20,000 from Lord Alli between May and July 2024, stating that the offer was for somewhere his son could study peacefully for his GCSEs. The exams that year finished in mid-June. Starmer's use of accommodation provided by Alli sparked further controversy when it was reported that a video calling for Brits to stay at home that Starmer had filmed in December 2021, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, had been filmed in a flat belonging to Alli. On 27 September, The Guardian reported that Starmer had received an additional £16,000 worth of clothes as a gift from Alli in late 2023 and early 2024. Although those gifts had been declared in time, they had been declared as money "for the private office" of Starmer, and not as clothing.
In October 2024, it was reported that the London Metropolitan Police's Special Escort Group—a top-level security usually provided for members of the British royal family and heads of state—would be provided for Swift and crew for the remainder of The Eras Tour shows in London. A political scandal soon developed in the United Kingdom as the politicians of opposition Conservative Party accused the ruling Labour Party of receiving free tickets to the Eras Tour in exchange of the security grant. It was alleged that Labour politicians, ranging from Starmer to London mayor Sadiq Khan, had received around £20,000 in free tickets, after Swift's demand for the security was initially denied, with the politicians subsequently pressuring the police to give in. The prime minister's office denied that the free tickets were connected to security demands, however admitted that Starmer meeting Swift at the concert could have created a perception of a conflict of interest. Former prime minister Boris Johnson said Swift has made the United Kingdom "look like a banana republic"; Rebecca Reid of i said "the Erastour has been dragged into a tangential political row" and criticized Johnson of not caring about women's safety; Reid opined that Swift deserves the police convoy in light of the Vienna threat and the Southport stabbing incident.
In response to changes to inheritance tax law for family farms announced in the October budget, mass protests organised by farmer organisations, against new inheritance tax laws on agricultural assets, have taken place around the United Kingdom since November 2024. The new laws were proposed in the October 2024 budget, and have led to thousands of British farmers protesting, including in Parliament Square and addressing MPs directly in parliament.
The protests were a response to proposed changes to inheritance tax on agricultural assets, which media outlets dubbed as a "tractor tax". Previously, the intergenerational transfer of farms had been exempt from taxation as a result of 1992 tax break by the Conservative Major ministry intended to protect food security. In November 2024, the newly elected Labour Starmer ministry announced plans to remove the exemption from inheritance tax for farms valued over at least £1,000,000 in order to generate revenue for public services. Set to take effect in April 2026, the new policy would see a 20% inheritance tax on farm valued over that threshold, half the standard rate of inheritance tax, and could be paid interest-free across ten years.
Opposition to the change from farmers stemmed from their claim that farmers, while asset rich, are cash poor, which they said created a situation where heirs would have to sell farm land to meet tax obligations. Supporters of the change claimed it would mitigate and prevent wealthy individuals from buying farmland to avoid inheritance tax. Starmer responded to concerns by saying that the actual threshold for inheritance tax liability could reach up to as high as £3,000,000 once various exemptions were applied, including considerations for couples and specific agricultural property relief. The secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Steve Reed defended the tax changes as a measure to counter wealthy investors using agricultural land for tax avoidance, stating it had become "the most effective way for the super rich to avoid paying their inheritance tax."
In October 2024, Jess Phillips, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, rejected Oldham Council's request for an independent public inquiry into the Oldham child sexual exploitation scandal, favouring a locally-run inquiry instead. On 2 January 2025, leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch called for a national inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation, criticising the Labour government for not supporting a government-led inquiry into Oldham. Phillips said that the previous Conservative government, of which Badenoch was a part, had also supported a local inquiry in Oldham.
Musk called Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" and suggested she was attempting to shield Starmer from blame since he led the Crown Prosecution Service when the abuse occurred. Starmer said politicians and activists were "spreading lies and misinformation" over grooming gangs, and were appealing to the far-right. Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said: "It doesn't need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done."
Following the general election, chairs and member of select committees were due to be appointed. The House of Commons allocated which parties held each Chair in advance of the summer recess on 30 July 2024. Nominations for Chairs and memberships ran until 9 September, and ballots took place on 11 September.
The first foreign meeting that Starmer attended as prime minister was the 2024 NATO summit.
On the flight to the summit, he laid out a "cast iron" commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, following a "root and branch" review of the UK's defences. In July 2024, Starmer and then US President Joe Biden discussed their shared commitment to the Special Relationship and mutual support of Ukraine. Biden also congratulated Starmer on "a hell of a victory".
At the 2024 NATO summit, Starmer signaled that Ukraine could use Britain's Storm Shadow missile donations to strike military targets inside Russia. In a meeting with Zelensky, Starmer called for an "irreversible" membership strategy for Ukraine to join NATO. In July 2024, Starmer told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the UK would continue its "vital cooperation to deter malign threats" with Israel.
Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Starmer tweeted "Political violence in any form has no place in our societies" and offered Donald Trump and his family his best wishes. He later deflected allegations from the Trump campaign that Labour had undertaken unlawful electoral interference by providing support to Kamala Harris' campaign, and had a meeting with Trump during the 79th session of the UN general assembly in New York. In November 2024, Starmer offered his congratulations to Trump on a phone call after he won the 2024 United States presidential election, along with other world leaders, saying "I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come." Starmer also congratulated Trump on his victory in his first Prime Minister's Questions since the election result. Following Trump's second inaguration, Starmer met Trump at the White House in February 2025, and upon arrival presented to Trump an invitation letter from King Charles III for an 'unprecedented' second state visit for a US president. Trump endorsed the Starmer government's proposed deal to relinquish the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius by ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, in exchange for a 99-year lease of Diego Garcia - including the UK-US military base. Starmer and Trump agreed to work towards a trade deal. Trump avoided Starmer's primary request of committing to a US backstop in any security guarantees for Ukraine. Starmer toured the Washington offices of Palantir Technologies, he spoke to Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp and was shown some of the company's defence-related AI technology.
In July 2024, Starmer pledged to take a tougher approach to China on human rights and security issues, including China's support for Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In November 2024, Starmer met Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and told him he wanted to build a 'consistent, durable, respectful' relationship with China.
On 16 February 2025, Starmer said he is ready to deploy British peacekeeping units in Ukraine if there is a peace deal to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Starmer hosted the 2025 London Summit on Ukraine with 18 world leaders, and announced the creation of a Coalition of the willing to support peace in Ukraine and to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The stated aim of the initiative is to facilitate the peace negotiation attempts launched and mediated by the United States between Ukraine and Russia in February 2025, by helping to build up strong enough security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure that a potential reached ceasefire or peace deal would be lasting. Besides serving the role as building up a potential peacekeeping force, the coalition have also expressed readiness to increase military support for Ukraine and strengthen economic sanctions against Russia, in the event that the ongoing negotiations for a "comprehensive ceasefire" or "peace deal" would fail. As of 20 March 2025, the exact shape and function of the coalition was described as still being subject to ongoing planning, but moved into an "operational phase".
Under Starmer's premiership licences of some British arms sales to Israel were suspended in September 2024 because of a "clear risk" the weapons could be used in breach of international law. Lammy announced the UK Government's suspension of 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, affecting equipment such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones. In November 2024, Starmer refused to call Israel's actions in Gaza "genocide". On 18 March 2025, Foreign Secretary David Lammy admitted that Israel had violated international law by blocking aid to the Gaza Strip. However, Starmer's government publicly rejected Lammy's statement to the House of Commons, which assessed that Israel had broken international law by blocking Gaza. Starmer's office stated that it was up to the Foreign Office to decide whether Lammy should apologise for his criticism of Israel.
Starmer's office confirmed that the United Kingdom provided support for United States strikes in Yemen in March 2025 through "routine allied air-to-air refuelling".
Starmer formed his government throughout 5–7 July, after his party won 411 seats in the 2024 general election, with the new Cabinet first meeting on 6 July and the new Parliament being called to meet on 9 July. It has been noted for its female political representation, appointing women to a record half of the Cabinet (including Rachel Reeves as the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer in British history) and three of the five top positions in the British government, including Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Starmer also appointed three politically independent experts: scientist Patrick Vallance as Minister of State for Science, rehabilitation campaigner James Timpson as Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation, and international law expert Richard Hermer as Attorney General for England and Wales. The government includes a few ministers from the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper, David Lammy and Ed Miliband in the Cabinet, and Jacqui Smith and Douglas Alexander as junior ministers.
This is a list of departures from the Starmer ministry since forming a government on 6 July 2024.
Starmer has made twenty-one international trips to seventeen countries during his premiership. As of 27 March 2025, the number of visits per country where Starmer travelled are: