From Nuclear Weapon Briefing To Meeting Larry, The "Chief Mouser", Keri Starmer Starts As New PM
Keir Starmer is set to take up the office as the UK Prime Minister. On his first day in office, he will get briefings from senior civil servants about key issues the government is facing, receive congratulatory phone calls from world leaders and begin the process of appointing his Cabinet.
Following the tradition, the first time a prime minister walks through the uber-polished doors of 10 Downing St., household staff and civil servants by custom line the entrance and clap for the new leader and his senior team. It is the PM’s introduction to the people he will live and work with.
One of the most sobering moment for a British Prime Minister that would bring to the absolute reality on his first day of the job is that he now has the ultimate authority over whether to launch Britain’s nuclear missiles.
Read Also: As Starmer Wins, Old Gaza Remark Resurfaces; UK’s Stand On Palestine In Spotlight
This process is underscored in the UK, when the country’s top civil servant informs the new prime minister that he has to write “last resort letters” to the captains of Britain’s four nuclear-armed submarines telling them what to do in the event of a nuclear attack that wipes out the civilian leadership.
It is a unique duty of Britain, where there is no “nuclear football,” the briefcase carrying targeting data and launch codes that accompanies the US president wherever he goes, said a media report.
The letters are placed on board on each of the submarines inside safes. They are to be opened only if their captains are certain that Britain has been attacked and the country’s civilian leaders are dead.
The letters are destroyed unread, when a new Prime Minister takes the office. There are thought to be only four option in the letter: retaliate, don’t retaliate, use your own judgment, or put your nuclear weapons under the command of the US or Australia, if possible.
No.10 Downing Street is different from the White House. Behind the famous black door is a warren of interlinked offices, meeting rooms and two residences that are carved out of three townhouses built in the late 1600s.
Read Also: Blog: Labour Elected In Britain- Will There Be Shift In India Relations?
With an estimated 400 people working in nearly 100 offices, the space has become dysfunctional.
The Prime Minister’s residence in Britain is not as posh as it is believed to be. No. 10 Downing St. is part of a row of townhouses built between 1682 and 1684 by former diplomat and property developer George Downing. The home of Britain’s prime ministers since 1735, it has been expanded over the years by linking it to the adjoining properties at No. 11 and No. 12.
Former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill described it as, “shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear.”
Interestingly, Keir Starmer will also meet with Larry the cat, the most famous permanent resident of Downing Street. Larry, a gray and white cat, who roams the heart of the government as if it is his own personal abode, has been a residence for more than 13 years, outlasting five prime ministers.
The former stray was brought to Downing Street from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in 2011 to help control a rodent problem and he has been “chief mouser” ever since.
