Keir Starmer is the new prime minister of the United Kingdom after his Labour Party won a landslide victory in the July 4 British general election and before his win he said his party owes a huge debt to Christianity.

Sir Keir, as he is called due to being a knight of the British realm, led his center-left Labour Party to a huge majority in the parliamentary election, defeating Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, ending its 14 years of rule.

Despite saying he does not adhere to a particular faith, Starmer spoke warmly of his personal experiences with the Christian community.

"When I was young, my mother was very sick. I remember that the people in our community who really cared for her and looked after her right up until the day she died were the people from her church."

Still, Donald Trump's running mate as Vice-President in the coming US presidential election, J.D. Vance, had sparked outrage after remarking that the UK under the Labour government is an "Islamist country," The Week reported on July 17.

He had been speaking at a conference for UK Conservatives, Vance said he was discussing with a friend which country would be the first "truly Islamist country with nuclear weapons."

Vance answered, "Maybe it's Iran, maybe Pakistan kind of counts, and then we sort of decided maybe it's actually the UK since Labour just took over."

Yet before the UK election, in an appeal for the Christian vote, Starmer, as party leader, acknowledged that Labour owes a "huge debt" to Christianity and its traditions.

                 More to Methodists than Marx

He told Premier Christian News that the party owes more to the Methodists than to Karl Marx.

He asserted that the Labour Party shares "key values" with Christianity and will support churches' efforts to help "rebuild the country."

Premier asked why Christians should vote Labour on July 4.

"It's sometimes said that the Labour Party owes more to Methodism than it does to Marx. It's certainly true that the history of the Labour Party owes a huge debt to the Christian tradition," said Starmer.

"My namesake Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party, used his skills as a lay preacher to talk powerfully about the injustices people faced," said Starmer

He noted, "You don't have to be a person of faith to recognize the real difference that faith can make in our communities. So often it's faith groups that have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in their local communities."

He said churches reach into the cracks that people fall through in our society and help to pull them out.

Churches and Christian charities do fantastic work across the nation through food banks, debt advice, toddler groups, education, youth work, social care, housing support, wellbeing programs, and other services too numerous to mention.

"Churches provide people with the help they need," said Starmer

"That's why a Labour government will support them and work with them."