It could not come soon enough. After 14 years, Britain at last has a government motivated by re-energising a sluggish economy rather than channelling lucrative state contracts to wealthy friends. A government keen to close the gap between young people from different backgrounds rather than impoverishing children. And one that aims to restore the NHS to its world-leading status rather than neglecting it and leaving people unable to get the care they need. Standing on the steps of Downing Street on Friday, prime minister Keir Starmer delivered a message of hope, pledging to remind the country that politics can be a force for good, and government can change people’s lives for the better.

It was a decisive and deserved victory: the largest majority any government has secured since 1997, just shy of that achieved by Tony Blair. The Conservatives were reduced to a rump of just 121 seats, voters forcing out cabinet minister after cabinet minister, a fitting verdict on a truly dreadful governing record. In Scotland, SNP incumbents were similarly swept away, leaving Labour the largest party in terms of Westminster seats.

Starmer has promised change. “We will be judged on actions, not words,” he said at his first press conference as prime minister. That change is evident in his initial decisions. In appointing his cabinet, Starmer has almost without exception moved shadow cabinet ministers into their government briefs, a sign of his commitment to expertise and stability rather than big jobs as favours for allies. More than eight in 10 of his cabinet went to comprehensive schools, compared with the two-thirds or so educated at private schools in Conservative cabinets in recent years. It also contains the most female ministers in history,........

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