LONDON, 7 Jul: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading off Sunday to the four corners of the U.K. as part of an \u201cimmediate reset\u201d with governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
\nStarmer, who said he has a \u201cmandate to do politics differently\u201d after his party\u2019s landslide victory, will meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney in Edinburgh in an effort to \u201cturn disagreement into cooperation.\u201d
\n\u201cThat begins today with an immediate reset of my government\u2019s approach to working with the first and deputy first ministers,\u201d he said. \u201cMeaningful co-operation centered on respect will be key to delivering change across our United Kingdom.\u201d
\nWhile each of the devolved nations in the U.K. elects members to the House of Commons in London, they also have their own regional parliaments.
\nStarmer\u2019s Labour Party trounced Swinney\u2019s Scottish National Party for seats in Parliament. But the SNP, which has pushed for Scottish independence, still holds a majority at Holyrood, the Scottish parliament.
\nThe trip to build better working relations across the U.K. is part of Starmer\u2019s broader mission to work toward serving people as he tackles of mountain of problems.
\nThe Labour government inherited a wobbly economy that left Britons struggling to pay bills after global economic woes and fiscal missteps. It also faces a public that is disenchanted after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule and fiscal austerity that hollowed out public services, including the revered National Health Service, which Starmer declared broken.
\nStarmer said he wants to transfer power from the bureaucratic halls of government in London to leaders who know what\u2019s best for their communities.
\nAfter his brief tour, he\u2019ll return to England, where he plans to meet with regional mayors, saying in his first news conference Saturday that he would engage with politicians regardless of their party.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no monopoly on good ideas,\u201d he said \u201cI\u2019m not a tribal political.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, Starmer will jet off to Washington for a NATO meeting.
\nMeanwhile, his top diplomat, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, was due in Poland and Sweden Sunday after visiting Germany on Saturday for his first trip abroad to strengthen ties with European partners.
\nGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the social media platform X that the U.K. was an indispensable part of Europe and they were working with the British government to see how it could move closer to the European Union.
\nLammy reiterated Starmer\u2019s pledge not to rejoin the EU single market after British voters in 2016 voted to break from the political and economic union.
\n\u201cLet us put the Brexit years behind us,\u201d Lammy told The Observer. \u201cWe are not going to rejoin the single market and the customs union but there is much that we can do together.\u201d
\nBusiness Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Sunday on Sky News that the U.K. should look for ways to improve trade with the EU and that removing some trade barriers was sensible. But he said the Labour government was not open to the free movement of people that was required as a member of the union. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, 7 Jul: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading off Sunday to the four corners of the U.K. as part of an \u201cimmediate reset\u201d with governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Starmer, who said he has a \u201cmandate to do politics differently\u201d after his party\u2019s landslide victory, will meet Scottish First Minister John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}