MR Tony Blair yesterday ended 8 Labour years in the wilderness, taking to the Prime Minister's dispatch box in the Commons for the first time just hours after drumming a message of humility into his new team of MPs.
Turning on its head Labour's triumphalist "We are the masters" claim of 1945, Mr Blair told the Parliamentary Labour Party: "We are not the masters. The people are the masters. We are the people's servants."
He added: "Forget that, and the people will soon show that what the electorate give, the electorate can take away.
If his stern, serious warning to his MPs set the tone he wishes to instil on Parliament, today he will seek to signal a government of action as his Cabinet meets for the first time to agree the shape of the Queen's Speech next Wednesday.
It promises to be a packed 17 month programme with Bills ranging from major constitutional change such as devolution to a string of education measures.
Hard on the heels of Tuesday's shock move to hand the Bank of England independence, the Prime Minister pulled another surprise out of the bag yesterday. This came as he announced that the BP chairman, Sir David Simon, was to be the new Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe.
The appointment was aimed at sending a signal to the British business community and to other EU member states that the Labour government was serious about business, competitiveness and Britain's place in Europe.
But it was the latest in a series of historic days for Labour as the 418 Labour MPs elected on May 1st turned up to Church House in Westminster to hear the Prime Minister deliver a speech mixing encouragement with stiff warnings.
Seeking to banish complacency, he deliberately called up the spectre of the Labour government of 1945 - the party's only pre-1997 landslide administration. Then Hartley Shawcross - in an ill judged moment of exultation said: "We are the masters at the moment and not only at the moment but for a very long time." Five years later their majority was slashed to just five seats and a year later they were out of office.
Mr Blair reminded his MPs that they were servants of the people not masters. He said: "We have won a historic victory," but warned: "Now the weight of history is upon our shoulders."
He continued: "Great is the excitement and hope in Britain today. Even greater is our sense of humility and responsibility in not disappointing those hopes."
He urged MPs not to let the air of optimism make them mistake the temper of the times. "This is a realistic age, where extravagant claims are treated with a raising of the eyebrows and a worldly caution.
Mimicking the Sun newspaper's famous claim after Mr Neil Kinnock's defeat in 1992, "It Was The Sun Wot Won It", Mr Blair insisted: "Be under no illusion - it was New Labour what won it. Let us learn that lesson well. We ran for office as New Labour, we govern as New Labour."
People from all walks of life had supported joined and helped New Labour: "We owe them a debt. They put their trust in us. Some of them never voted Labour in their lives before. They did so on the basis on New Labour. I want them to vote for us again. They will only do so if New Labour is as real in government as it was in opposition."
And, piling on the warnings to his new team of MPs, he alluded to the "cash for questions" allegations of the last parliament. "Remember, you are not here to enjoy the trappings of power but to do a job and to uphold the highest standards in public life.
"You are the ambassadors for New Labour and ambassadors for the government. More than that, you are here to keep the promises in our contract with the people."
There were standing ovations and cheers for Mr Blair at Church House - and there was a similar heady atmosphere hours later as Ms Betty Boothroyd was reelected as Speaker and the Labour leader gripped the Prime Minister's dispatchbox for the first time in office. One of the key tasks of the new administration had earlier begun with the Cabinet committee that will shape the welfare to work programme holding its first meeting. The Education and Employment Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, the Employment Minister, Mr Andrew Smith, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Alistair Darling, met to plan Labour's "new deal for the young unemployed".