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As it happened: Starmer appoints cabinet after landslide win

Sir Keir Starmer delivers his first speech in Downing Street (Getty Images)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed his cabinet after winning a landslide in the general election. Rachel Reeves has been announced as the first ever female Chancellor and Angela Rayner is deputy prime minister. With one seat left to count, Labour has won 412 seats, and the Tories 121. Starmer will enter government on a vote share of 35 per cent, the lowest of any majority government in the democratic era.

Here’s what unfolded:

  • Keir Starmer has appointed his cabinet: Rachel Reeves is Chancellor; Angela Rayner is deputy PM; David Lammy is Foreign Secretary; Yvette Cooper is Home Secretary.
  • John Healey has been appointed Defence Secretary; Liz Kendall is Work and Pensions Secretary; Louise Haigh is Transport Secretary; and Lisa Nandy is Culture Secretary.
  • Former chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance has been appointed minister of state for science. James Timpson has been made minister of state for prisons.
  • Rishi Sunak stepped down as PM earlier today. ‘I have heard your anger’, he said in his final statement in Downing Street.
  • Eleven Tory cabinet ministers lost their seats in the election. Former prime minister Liz Truss was defeated. Senior Tories Jacob Rees-Mogg, Miriam Cates and Therese Coffey also lost their seats.
  • Labour enters government on a 35 per cent vote share – the lowest of any governing party since 1923, and the lowest for a majority government since the Acts of Union in 1800.
  • Nigel Farage won Clacton, on his eighth attempt to become an MP. Reform’s Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock also won seats.
  • Two Labour frontbenchers, Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire, lost their seats.
  • Jeremy Corbyn won Islington North as an independent. George Galloway lost his Rochdale seat to Labour. Five pro-Gaza independents were elected.
  • The SNP won nine seats, losing 39 from the last election.

Here’s how the election unfolded on our live blog: 

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