Following his ousting as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer was pictured enjoying a low-key pub visit with Chancellor Rachel Reeves, while his former Downing Street staff held farewell drinks marking the end of his premiership. The images offer a lighter coda to a turbulent political transition, showing the former leader relaxing socially just after leaving office, as attention in Westminster shifts firmly to his successor, Andy Burnham.

Aides at the leaving party reportedly wore "Sparkle with Starmer" T-shirts as a nostalgic send-off for the outgoing administration. The report comes amid a flurry of coverage of the new Burnham government, including criticism over an unfunded £850 million energy bills policy, Cabinet warnings to show how policies will be funded, and mockery from foreign media over the change of leadership.