Starmer’s arrival at Number 10 will bring a reset in Anglo-Irish relations

It’s been a remarkable week in the politics of these islands, and the reverberations will probably be felt for years to come. Predictions of a landslide Labour victory in Thursday’s UK general election came to pass, with Keir Starmer’s party achieving one of the biggest majorities in UK history. In contrast to the Republic’s lengthy counts, it was all over by early on Friday morning and Starmer, having met King Charles, was installed in 10 Downing Street by lunchtime.

What the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system gains in speed, it often loses in representational accuracy. That was certainly true this time around, with Labour receiving a massive seat bonus on a relatively modest share of the actual vote. The election results revealed a fractured political landscape across Britain, with smaller parties making inroads as grievances over issues from immigration to the war in Gaza influenced voters’ decisions.

Over the course of the six-week campaign, London Correspondent Mark Paul has been travelling across the country, visiting cities, towns and villages to find out what’s driving the politics of post-Brexit Britain. He found a country often ill at ease with the direction in which it’s going and angry with its political leadership. All of this could be seen in this week’s results and the challenges which the new prime minister faces this weekend.

In a well-observed profile of Starmer, Mark describes a whip-smart, fastidious, private, often blunt politician heavily influenced by his father - a lifelong socialist who passed on his disdain for Thatherite thinking - and his loving mother, who fought chronic illness.

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“The things his father gave him and, just as importantly, the things that he did not – warmth, a loving embrace – have helped to mould Starmer into the man he is and the prime minister that he will be,” he writes.

In Northern Ireland, Northern Editor Freya McClements and Northern Correspondent Seanín Graham were also on the road, talking to party activists and ordinary people across the North about an election that threw up a number of surprise results. “Seats which were expected to be held – Lagan Valley, North Down – were lost. Seats where the margin was thought to be tight – South Antrim – were captured by a landslide. And seats which nobody had imagined would be in doubt – North Antrim – were suddenly in play,” Freya writes.

For the first time in 54 years there won’t be a Paisley representing North Antrim, with Ian Paisley junior defeated by his hardline unionist opponent Jim Allister in the contest for the seat his father first won in 1970. The DUP, the party founded by Ian senior, had a bad night, losing three of its eight seats and leaving Sinn Féin with the undisputed title of Northern Ireland’s largest party. “Losing North Antrim was a humiliating blow to the unseated MP, to the Paisley family, and to the DUP,” writes Gerry Moriarty. “In his long life, it is a hit that Ian Paisley senior never could have foreseen.” For a full breakdown of results in Northern Ireland’s constituencies, click here.

The election results will have all sorts of implications for politics not just in London and Belfast but in Dublin too, with widespread expectations, set out here by Mark Hennessy, that the new Labour government will reset relations with its Irish counterpart and seek to mend bridges with the rest of the EU too. The Irish Times will continue to cover all these developments as they unfold in the months to come.

In the Opinion section, Hugh Linehan looks at the scale of the challenge facing Starmer’s government. “If it is to make any progress in restructuring the health service, reforming the planning laws or reviving British industry, Labour will need to make decisions that alienate some of those who voted for it this week. Since he became leader four years ago, Starmer has demonstrated a streak of ruthlessness and a willingness to upend policy. That will almost certainly be needed,” he writes.

It was a week dominated by elections. French voters are preparing to cast their ballots today in the second round of a parliamentary election that could result in the far-right forming a government. “Let’s jump off the bridge to see if there is water in the river.” That’s how the French humorist Sophia Aram described president Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call the snap election - a decision that looks likely to backfire, as Lara Marlowe suggests in her pre-election primer.

And in the US, where the presidential election is still four months away, the fate of US president Joe Biden is the only topic of conversation in the corridors of power. The Democrat’s performance in his first campaign debate with Donald Trump raised doubts about whether he possesses the mental and physical acuity and stamina to lead his party into the election. On Monday, neuropsychologist Ian Robertson gave his verdict on what went wrong for the president. As Fintan O’Toole argued the following day, the stakes are high: “It’s not fine – the United States is in imminent danger of being handed back to a Trump who is vastly more malign than he was in 2016: more deranged, more vengeful, more openly willing to use Nazi rhetoric, more contemptuous of all constitutional restraints, more assured than ever that there is nothing at all he cannot get away with.”

Elsewhere in Opinion, David McWilliams has some advice for parents who want their children to get a real job, Sarah Moss reflects on her feelings of guilt about flying and Cliff Taylor tells us exactly how the Budget choreography will play out over the coming months.

In Business, besides the ongoing disruption at Aer Lingus amid a strike by the airline’s pilots, this week’s talking point was Revolut. Joe Brennan broke the news this week that Revolut plan to enter the Irish mortgage market from early next year. It’s a game-changer, Joe reminds us, and the banks know it.

Writing in the Food section, Corinna Hargrave this week reviews Floritz at St Stephen’s Green, where our critic found a “mesmerising” spread of Asian-inspired dishes: “The full menu is overwhelming but there is no doubt that the shorter lunch menu offers value. I have a feeling that there may be a bit of a cull and an edit on the way. It’s early days yet. In the meantime, be sure to study up before you visit.” Read the 3.5-star write-up here.

Finally, I’d recommend taking some time over Daniel McLaughlin’s account of the politics of language in Ukraine, the poet Victoria Kennefick’s essay on how her spouse came out as a trans woman, and a run-down of the best books of the year so far.

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

Editor

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