.png)
2 hours ago
6
Keir Starmer has announced he will stand down as prime minister after days of intense pressure from Labour MPs, including cabinet ministers, following the return of Andy Burnham to Westminster.
Less than two years after a historic election victory, Starmer had faced calls from his MPs to set out a timeline for his departure, with many of them unnerved by the threat from Nigel Farage’s party before the next general election.
Starmer’s decision to announce his departure will now start a race among Labour MPs to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years, with Burnham in pole position to win. If he is uncontested, he could be in Downing Street within weeks.
Speaking from a podium outside Downing Street on Monday, Starmer said: “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election.
“I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace. Every decision I have taken has been about putting the country I love first, that is why I will resign as leader of the Labour party.”
While Starmer had insisted on Friday that he would fight any leadership contest, conversations with ministers and time with his wife, Victoria, at Chequers over the weekend shifted his thinking.
More than half a dozen cabinet ministers are understood to have privately told him his time was up, while Starmer and his inner circle began work on drafts of a resignation speech on Saturday.
Starmer said he would ask Labour’s ruling national executive committee to set out a timetable for a contest with nominations opening on 9 July and completed by summer recess just week later.
The prime minister said he would remain in post until parliament returns in September, meaning he will represent the UK at the next Nato summit in early July. But if Burnham runs unchallenged, then he could take over as the Commons rises on 16 July.
In words aimed towards his likely successor, Starmer said that he would do “everything I can” to ensure an orderly handover of power, despite what insiders have described as his earlier fury over Burnham’s ambitions.
“I will also give my successor my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago, better prepared for the challenges ahead and better able to ensure the Labour party secures a second term in office,” he said.
Burnham was being sworn in as an MP on Monday afternoon after seeing off Reform to win the Makerfield byelection last week. He is expected to easily clear the 81 nominations threshold required to run, with his allies saying they believe he has the support of well over 200 MPs.
Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who quit over Starmer’s leadership, has said he would run but it is unclear whether he has the numbers, and could do a deal with the former mayor of Greater Manchester for a cabinet post.
Starmer’s successor will take on the serious challenges of the UK economy and a precarious international backdrop, as well as Labour’s battle against the threat from Nigel Farage’s party.
Some Labour MPs are concerned that Burnham may be unprepared for the role, and want him to face the scrutiny of a full contest, while others fear it would further damage Labour’s ratings with the public, and they should make as swift a transition as possible.
In his speech, which was watched on Downing Street by his closest ministerial allies and aides, Starmer’s voice broke with emotion as he paid tribute to friends and colleagues who had been at his side over the last six years as Labour leader – and to his family.
“When I leave the biggest job in the country, I shall spend more time on the most important job, being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife, Vic, who has been a rock by my side through good times and bad, and being the best dad I can to my beautiful children, who are my pride and my joy,” he said.
Starmer steps down after months of pressure over his leadership, which was first almost derailed in February when Anas Sarwar, the party’s leader in Scotland, called for him to quit. At that point, the cabinet rallied round.
Despite his poor personal approval ratings, he had seemed on firmer ground in recent months with his handling of the Middle East crisis and refusal to do Donald Trump’s bidding by taking the UK into war with Iran.
However, any respite was blown apart when the Guardian revealed in April that Peter Mandelson, his controversial pick for UK ambassador to Washington, had been appointed despite failing his security vetting.
Mandelson’s appointment was the latest in what many inside Labour regard as a long line of political misjudgments by Starmer, including restricting winter fuel payments and welfare cuts, which caused the party to sink in the polls.
His willingness to reverse those decisions only added to his unpopularity among the parliamentary Labour party, large parts of which increasingly came to view him as weak and ineffectual. Some MPs were also concerned about his poor communication skills.
Multiple MPs were shocked by the scale of Starmer’s unpopularity on the doorstep as they campaigned during the May elections, which many believed became a lightning rod for wider frustrations with the political system itself.
As the results rolled in, with significant losses across the country, the scale of the electoral challenge facing Labour became clear, and the trickle of voices from MPs calling for Starmer to name an exit date turned into a steady stream.
The increasingly precarious nature of Starmer’s premiership was underlined by the resignation of Streeting days later – after seemingly failing to get the numbers to launch a challenge – and then a vacancy in the seat of Makerfield which gave Burnham a route back to parliament.
Since then, he has also lost his defence secretary John Healey over military spending plans, and a view settled among Labour MPs that Starmer’s leadership was so fragile that – despite his insistence that he would fight on – his days in Downing Street were numbered.
Starmer’s exit caps a calamitous fall from grace since becoming only the fourth Labour leader to win an election, taking more seats in 2024 than anyone since Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.
