Keir Starmer announced this Monday (22), in London, who will no longer be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In a brief statement in front of 10 Downing Street, the seat of government, Starmer said he had submitted his resignation to King Charles III this morning.
His likely successor, Andy Burnham, former mayor of Manchesteralso this Monday he was sworn in as a member of Parliament, a political condition for becoming a candidate for prime minister within the Labor Party. Visibly emotional in his speech, Starmer declared that he will give “full and unequivocal support” to his successor.
“The question my party is raising now is whether I am the best person to lead us in the next general election,” the premier said. “I have heard my parliamentary group’s response to this question and I gladly accept it”, added Starmer, in a dignified tone, very different from that adopted by Boris Johnsonin July 2022.
In a similar situation, pressured to resign by his own partythe conservative left office shooting — he even called his then majority in Parliament a “herd”.
If he has no opponents within the Labor Party, Burnham could take office in July. In the case of internal elections, Starmer stated that he will ask the party’s management to register candidates by July 9th. “This will ensure a new leader is in place before Parliament returns (from recess) in September,” Starmer said.
Starmer’s former Health Secretary, Wes Streeting is one of the few voices within the party to defend the internal election. Last week, the politician, from a more right-wing wing of labor, stated that he not only maintained this intention but also had already secured the 81 votes from labor parliamentarians necessary to present a candidacy.
“I will remain in post until the process is complete and I will do everything I can to ensure an organized transition of power”, said the prime minister, targeted, the day before, of Donald Trump’s derogatory comments.
Starmer, 63, a former director of public prosecutions, did not complete two years in the role. With a landslide victory in June 2024put an end to a controversial conservative era, which began exactly ten years ago, with the plebiscite that determined the country’s exit from the European Union. Since Brexit, the United Kingdom there were five changes of power.
If the worst moment in history for the Conservatives dramatically elected Labor two years ago, it also revitalized the far right in the country, symbolized by populist Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Although challenged, the Starmer government only succumbed after Labor be surpassed by Farage’s party in regional electionsin May.
Contributing to Starmer’s downfall was the revelation in April that Peter Mandelson, his nominee for the British embassy in the US, had failed a security screening. Weeks earlier, Mandelson had already resigned after details of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein have been extensively explored by the British press.
Starmer condemned the lack of care from his own office, but the damage to his image was irreversible.
A sign of the times, Farage had a more incisive reaction than the conservatives to the Prime Minister’s announcement, saying it was “ridiculous to pretend that Andy Burnham has any kind of mandate to lead the country”. According to the ultra-right leader, Burnham “has good reason to be afraid” of him.
“Reform is the only party that listens to workers’ concerns and offers them solutions, rather than flattery and condescension,” wrote Farage on social media, already using a campaign tone against his rumored future opponent.
In his resignation speech, Starmer listed his government’s achievements as “a strong economy” and “wages growing faster than inflation every month” since taking office. None of this overcame political instability and, according to critics, the lack of assertiveness on issues such as taxes, immigration and social protection.
“Every decision I made was to put the country I love first. That’s why I resigned as leader of the Labor Party,” said Starmer, recognizing that his departure was inevitable to overcome the crisis that had taken hold in the government.
