Britain veers left, but Labour's honeymoon may be short-lived

The Labour Party has stormed back into power in the United Kingdom after 14 years in opposition, promising to replace the "chaos of the Conservatives" with a bland, utilitarian agenda to fix the things in the country that are broken.

"The change begins right here," said Leader Keir Starmer after leading his party to a resounding 412 seats in Parliament.

That's only slightly less than Tony Blair's landslide win for Labour in 1997 and ties Blair's result in 2001.

"I don't promise you it will be easy," said the 61-year-old Starmer. "Our task is nothing less than renewing the ideas that hold the country together."

The Conservatives won 120 seats, down from the 342 with which they began the campaign.

Rather than making a hard ideological swing to the left, Labour under Starmer is promising to tack closer to the political centre and give Britons a break from the constant internal warfare that plagued the Tories throughout much of their four consecutive terms in office.

WATCH | Keir Starmer says U.K. voted 'decisively' for change:

Included in Labour's "mission-driven" platform are pledges to reduce hospital waiting times and crime by hiring more health-care workers and police officers. The public school system will get a new infusion of teachers. Labour also says it will fix a million potholes on British roads every year.

On the revenue side, it's promising to raise money through targeted tax increases on things such as private school tuition fees, while avoiding across-the-board hikes.

When Starmer took over the party after former leader Jeremy Corbyn resigned in 2020, he dumped many of Labour's traditional — and controversial positions — including nationalizing energy companies and railroads.

He also began sounding more like a CEO, echoing the talking points of the business community by emphasizing the need to create the conditions for more wealth creation in the U.K.

In the end, even the notoriously anti-Labour Sun newspaper begrudgingly endorsed Starmer for prime minister.

"I think Keir Starmer has done a tremendous job of transforming the Labour Party and putting forward a program for government that I'm hopeful that people have got behind," said Starmer's presumptive deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, as the election results rolled in.

Rayner is currently No. 2 on the opposition benches and poised to play a central role in the new Labour administration.