Sir Keir Starmer: “The use of proxies by hostile states in this country is a growing concern and a real concern.”

It's work I started before I became an MP and it's work I'm keen to continue after I'm an MP.

So, as I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success. He has my full support.

Yet the thing I will always take away with me – the most humbling aspect of this job – is the front-row seat you get to witness the greatest things of this country in action.

My work is done. In six-and-a-half years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country, and won a landslide general election victory in 2024.