MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Moscow is not optimistic about the change of prime minister in the United Kingdom, as the Labour Party, that has won the parliamentary elections, is likely to continue London’s previous course, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, answering a question from TASS.

"They (the UK Labour Party - TASS), as we can judge from previous statements, are not inclined to any kind of flexibility and are not inclined to be creative in normalizing the British-Russian bilateral relations. Rather, they are inclined to continue the line of denying the future of our bilateral relations. Therefore, we are not optimistic about it," he explained.

On Friday, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, 61, formally took office as UK prime minister and received a mandate from King Charles III to form a cabinet. Starmer's predecessor as prime minister, Rishi Sunak, led the cabinet from October 25, 2022 until this Friday.

Starmer took over as head of cabinet following the parliamentary elections held on July 4. According to preliminary data, the Labor Party under his leadership secured itself at least 412 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, gaining the majority required to form a new cabinet. The Conservative Party, which had ruled since 2010, currently has just 121 seats. Starmer is the 58th prime minister in UK history and only the seventh representative of the Labour Party in this post.