Sun. Dec 22nd, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Front page of the Guardian newspaper for 6 July
Saturday’s front pages lead on Labour’s landslide victory as Sir Keir Starmer promises to build a “government of service” after becoming the UK’s first Labour prime minister since 2010. The Guardian offers a special souvenir issue to mark the 2024 general election, as it quotes the new PM’s address to the nation: “We will fight everyday until you believe again.”

Front page of the Daily Express for Saturday 6 July, showing a picture of Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria.

The Daily Express urges its readers to “be gracious in defeat” as it notes Sir Keir’s “historic victory”. It goes on to picture outgoing Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and his wife Akshata Murty, as the paper says Mr Sunak showed “generosity of spirit and true graciousness” in one of his last acts as PM.

Front page of The Times for 6 July

The Times also reports on Labour’s electoral performance, with the new government gaining a parliamentary majority of 174 seats – the largest since Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997. The paper goes on to direct readers to a 24-page election results special.

Front page of the Daily Mirror for 6 July

The front page of the Daily Mirror, which supported Sir Keir’s campaign, says a lot with few words. “Now we begin,” is its headline, as the paper pictures the new prime minister and his wife smiling and waving outside the door to No 10.

Front page of the Daily Mail for 6 July

“Now he has to deliver” leads the Daily Mail. The newspaper says Sir Keir secured a “loveless landslide on just 34% of the vote”. Sir Keir’s share of votes increased by less than two percentage points since the 2019 election, but his party gathered 63% of seats in Parliament. Conservatives trailed behind obtaining 24% of votes, while Reform UK, Liberal Democrats and Green parties won 14%, 12% and 7% of votes respectively.

Front page of the Financial Times for 6 July

In its weekend edition the Financial Times reports that big-name exits after the general election have thinned the field of eligible replacements for Mr Sunak as Tory leader, with Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps among those to lose their seats. But in its lead is a buoyant Sir Keir, who has pledged to prioritise the UK’s economic growth.

Front page of the i for 6 July

The i newspaper leads with a snippet from Sir Keir’s speech outside No 10, as he addressed the nation saying “politics can be a force for good”. It lays out Sir Keir’s Cabinet appointments, while picturing the Conservative party’s “casualty list”, as “big beasts” like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss lost their seats.

Front page of the Daily Star for 6 July

The Daily Star pictures King Charles’s encounter with Sir Keir as the King formally invited him to form the next government. But the paper’s main focus is the England versus Switzerland Euro 2024 match later on Saturday.

Front page of the Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph leads on incoming Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s remarks on the state of the health service his government is inheriting. “The NHS is broken,” it quotes him as saying. In its report the paper says Sir Keir has “killed off the Rwanda deportation plan”, which is in line with the new prime minister’s stance throughout his electoral campaign.

Saturday’s front pages lead on Labour’s landslide victory as Sir Keir Starmer promises to build a “government of service” after becoming the UK’s first Labour prime minister since 2010. Most pages are awash with images of a smiling Sir Keir outside No 10.

Quoting his first speech as prime minister, the headline in the Times is: “The work of change begins”.

The Daily Mirror says the “morning’s drizzle didn’t dampen people’s spirits, such was the sense of relief and euphoria on Downing Street”.

But the Daily Mail strikes a different tone. It says: “Now he has to deliver”, after Sir Keir won what it calls a “loveless landslide”.

According to the Financial Times, the new prime minister knows that public support for Labour is “shallow”, but his “avowedly pro-business agenda appears to have paid off” already, with housebuilding companies making gains on the stock market.

The Sun says the government will “declare Britain open for business with a bonfire of planning regulations and a global investment drive”.

The i newspaper reports that the government will also set out its plans to nationalise the rail network.

While the Daily Telegraph suggests that Sir Keir’s priority in his first week of government will be tackling illegal migration, although sources tell the paper that he has “killed off” the Rwanda asylum scheme.

Also in the Telegraph, a Conservative insider claims Rishi Sunak “just didn’t have the instinct” for campaigning, as the paper reports on what it calls “the blame game” over the Tories’ election defeat.

The United Kingdom's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer after giving a speech outside No 10 Downing Street following the 2024 general election, 05/07/2024.

The Daily Mail likens it more to a civil war, as one former cabinet minister tells the paper the Conservatives “were left vulnerable by a Boris-shaped hole in their defences, through which Reform was able to stroll unchallenged”. In his column in the paper, Boris Johnson sets out a 10-point plan on how the Tories can return to government as soon as possible, after what he calls “the atomic bomb that has detonated over the British political landscape”.

But the Tories will need to find a new leader first and according to the Daily Mirror the former home secretary, Suella Braverman, has already fired the starting pistol in a leadership race.

The Guardian names the former business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, as another “near-certain contender”. It claims her run “would most likely be characterised by her apparent ability to turn the most innocuous exchange into an argument”.

The Times adds James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel, Victoria Atkins and Tom Tugendhat to the list of Tories said to be weighing up a leadership run, while the Sun says the former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, could launch his bid on the Sunday morning political shows.

But, whoever is running, one moderate Tory warns the Financial Times that “the leadership contest will be dominated by one question: how do you beat Reform?”.

Reflecting on what it calls the SNP’s “hammering at the polls”, the Scotsman says John Swinney has been “forced into rethinking” his party’s approach to independence. The paper says he will have to “steer the Scottish National Party in a new direction, with a much-reduced crew”.

The National claims the result presents “an opportunity for a new start”. It recommends the SNP refreshes the arguments for a new generation of independence voters.

And, the front page of the Daily Express praises Rishi Sunak for displaying “warmth, generosity of spirit and true graciousness” as he stepped down, while also acknowledging that his successor is “undoubtedly decent and sincere”.

News Daily banner
News Daily banner

Source link