First light was breaking over the Thames as Britain’s new prime minister walked into the cavernous Turbine Hall of Tate Modern at 5am on Friday. Sir Keir Starmer looked out at the sea of relief on the faces of Labour activists and declared: “We can look forward again, walk into the morning.”

It was a stunning moment of vindication for the “lefty lawyer”, as outgoing premier Rishi Sunak called him, who rose from a working-class background to deliver Labour’s first election victory for almost 20 years, pulling the centre-left party back from the electoral abyss.

The world will now be watching to see whether this technocratic politician, sometimes criticised as monochrome, can succeed in an era in which populist politicians, painting with broad strokes in brash colours, are on the rise.