Keir Starmer was elected as the leader of Britain's Labour Party on Saturday, pledging to bring an end to years of bitter infighting and to work with the government to contain the raging coronavirus pandemic.
Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions who was known for a forensic attention to detail when opposing the country's exit from the European Union, won 56% of the votes.
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The comprehensive defeat of an ally of outgoing Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the election of Angela Rayner as Starmer's deputy, heralds the end of the party leadership's embrace of radical socialism that was crushed in the December election.
Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey came second in the party's vote with 28% and Lisa Nandy was third with 16%. Many centrist Labour politicians celebrated the result as a sign that the government would finally face proper scrutiny.
Starmer, who takes over immediately, said he would work constructively with the government when it was the right thing to do while testing Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's arguments and challenging the failures.
"Our purpose when we do that is the same as the government's, to save lives," he said in a statement.
Starmer added that once the country emerges on the other side, once the hospital wards have emptied and the threat subsided, it would need to build a fairer society, where key workers on the front line receive decent salaries and better chances in life.
"In their courage and their sacrifice and their bravery, we can see a better future. This crisis has brought out the resilience and human spirit in all of us," he said.
Johnson said on Twitter he had congratulated Starmer and the two agreed on the importance of working together.
Acknowledging the scope of the task ahead, he said, "This is my pledge to the British people. I will do my utmost to guide us through these difficult times, to serve all of our communities and to strive for the good of our country. I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and with hope."
Keir used his victory speech, delivered online due to the pandemic restrictions, to lash out at Corbyn for letting anti-Semitism run rampant in the party's ranks, something that led to the departure of many members and some Jewish MPs.
"We have to face the future with honesty," he said. "Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party. I have seen the grief that it's brought to so many Jewish communities. On behalf of the Labour Party, I am sorry. I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us," he vowed.
