The King appoints Keir Starmer Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

On 5 July 2024 King Charles III received Keir Starmer at Buckingham Palace and asked him to form a government. Starmer accepted and became Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.

Context

Sunak had resigned earlier that day after the election. The 1922-and-after convention is that the sovereign appoints the person who can command the Commons. Starmer then delivered a Downing Street speech and appointed a Cabinet including Reeves, Cooper, and Rayner. Same-week Rwanda and later Winter Fuel instruments are neighbouring rows. Office is not authorship of Congress in Washington or of the OBR.

The 4 July election and the 6 July Rwanda halt are different dates. The 20 July 2026 resignation is a different date.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is First Lord of the Treasury and chairs Cabinet. He does not enact statutes alone. Parliament enacts; courts review; the Home Office, DWP, HMT, MoJ, DESNZ and NESO implement. After 20 July 2026 he is a backbench MP for Holborn and St Pancras, not the author of Andy Burnham’s instruments. Office-holding is not authorship of every later welfare series. Allegation is not a completed judgment.

Why it matters

The path is democratic-resilience: a completed scheduled transfer after an election is the constitutional schedule holding. It does not authorise treating every later Order as this audience.