As Keir Starmer starts to tackle his in-tray, securing the future of the Union must be top of his list, EUAN MCCOLM writes [Video]

17:54 EDT 06 Jul 2024, updated 20:41 EDT 06 Jul 2024

As landslide election victories go, it lacked a certain pizzazz. Sir Keir Starmer may be our new Prime Minister with a remarkable majority of MPs but the transition of power between Rishi Sunak and his successor was peculiarly low key.

There was none of that ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ energy of 1997 when Tony Blair led Labour back from the political fringes into power.

Instead, each paid polite tribute to the other and quietly got about their business, Mr Sunak of moving his family out of No 10, thereafter to console himself with nothing more than their nourishing love and the multi-million pound fortune he shares with his wife, and Mr Starmer of running the country while trying to fix our fractured and discredited politics.

There are a number of reasons this Labour landslide feels different from 1997. For one thing, Sir Keir is no Tony Blair, a politician …