Last week, Keir Starmer was forced into sitting and standing downwind of Donald Trump at the G7 Summit in France. Soon after, the British and American media confirmed that Starmer would announce his phased resignation as Britain’s prime minister. That’s what happened today. Keir Starmer exited Downing Street with his wife Victoria and announced that he will step down as PM in September, which is when a new Labour Party leader would be declared at the big Labour conference. July 4th is the two-year anniversary of Labour’s landslide victory, but it’s been all downhill for Starmer and Labour since then.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain announced his resignation on Monday, bowing to a mutiny inside his party and a challenge to his leadership of the country.
Mr. Starmer said he would remain as prime minister until a new party leader is selected, by September, rather than fight to remain in the job he won almost two years ago. His decision clears the way for Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, extending a period of political turmoil for the country since it voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Mr. Starmer said in brief remarks in front of No. 10 Downing Street, his voice breaking with emotion at times.
“I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace,” he said. “That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.”
The most likely replacement for Mr. Starmer is Andy Burnham, whose resounding victory last week in a special election energized his bid to oust the prime minister. Mr. Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and one of Labour’s most popular politicians, received almost 55 percent of the vote in the Makerfield district.
Mr. Starmer’s tenure as prime minister began in 2024 when Labour won a large parliamentary majority and put an end to 14 years of Conservative Party government. But Labour earned a record-low vote share of 34 percent in that election, prompting analysts to call the victory a “loveless landslide.”
In his remarks, Mr. Starmer defended his record, citing economic improvement, investment in health care, increased military spending, falling illegal immigration and other legislative accomplishments. It was, he said, “change promised by a Labour government, change fought for by a Labour government, change delivered by a Labour government.”
But the prime minister’s time in office was increasingly defined by political decline, which left him looking weak, indecisive and not in command of his own party. In recent weeks, Mr. Starmer had repeatedly vowed to fight any challenge to his position — from Mr. Burnham or anyone else — saying he was unwilling to walk away from his responsibility to Britain. In the end, he appeared to accept the political reality that came with being one of the least popular prime ministers in modern British history.
David Cameron really put a curse on Downing Street or perhaps a curse on modern British politics. Cameron’s prime ministership lasted six years, but he left office because of the Brexit vote. It’s been chaos ever since – from Cameron, the UK had Theresa May, then Boris Johnson, then poor Liz Truss/lettuce, then Rishi Sunak, and now Starmer. Someone said seven prime ministers in a decade shows that Britain is a failed state. I think it shows that the British media has grown much too influential – while there is legitimate criticism of Starmer and Labour, Britain’s media and pale-and-stale political class had their knives out for Starmer from the start.
One of the final indignities was that Donald Trump “announced” Starmer’s resignation on Sunday too, before Starmer even got to make his speech today.
🚨 BREAKING: Donald Trump says Keir Starmer will resign as PM after he "failed badly" on immigration and energy pic.twitter.com/Y2NmHNePYi
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 21, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Keir Starmer makes an announcement concerning his future as British Prime Minister, Downing Street, London, UK, 22 June 2026.,Image: 1111758032, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- 16/06/2026. Evian, France. Prime Minister Keir Starmer watches a concert with world leaders during day two of the G7 Leaders Summit with his wife Victoria, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Evian.,Image: 1110606752, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form. All images are Crown copyright and re-usable under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where other, Model Release: no , Credit line: Ben Perry/Avalon
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- 17/06/2026. Evian, France. Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the ‘Reviving a balanced, shared and sustainable economic growth for all’ working session as he attends day three of the G7 Leaders Summit with his wife Victoria, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Evian.,Image: 1110745926, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form. All images are Crown copyright and re-usable under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherw, Model Release: no , Credit line: Ben Perry/Avalon
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- Sir Keir Starmer with wife Victoria as he makes an announcement concerning his future as British Prime Minister, Downing Street, London, UK, 22 June 2026.,Image: 1111756913, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Keir Starmer makes an announcement concerning his future as British Prime Minister, Downing Street, London, UK, 22 June 2026.,Image: 1111757238, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
He made a major mistake-step on an issue related to the Epstein thing – he hired Peter Mandelsin who was associated with Epstein and Mandelson gave away state secrets (I think?). My impression is that’s what did him in. He was warned to to hire Mandelson, and did it anyway. He made a political miscalculation.
In a British parliamentary system, he was putting his own party in danger by doing that. If your party members want you out, you’re out.
*** I meant to say he was warned not to hire Mandelson.
But, as mentioned by others. it looks like he also did a bunch of other stuff that would affect his leadership. Your own party has to actually want you and if they don’t, you need to step aside or your government collapses anyway in a vote and you get cut.
The Mandelson appointment was the drop that made the bucket overflow, to quote a French saying. But it was also curiously unnecessary — the previous British Ambassador to the US was Karen Pierce, who was universally beloved in Washington. The only that that Biden & Trump agreed on, was that both were fans of Karen. Why Starmer replaced her at all, is a mystery. Not one the media is exploring, which fascinates me — like, the dog not barking. Cause Pierce was never involved in anything dodgy. Mandelson was dripping with sleaze going back to the Blair days, and the one lesson for the Labour Party was never to look back at the Blair days, like Orpheus ascending the path out of Hades.
It also begs the question – what did Mandelson (or his backers) have on Starmer to make him push this through.
I have little faith that things will get better with a new PM.
Our political climate has been stale and weak for a long time partly due to the vice like grip the 2 main parties have on politics and an unfit for purpose voting system. We desperately need proper voting reform here in the UK – voter apathy is also very high which also needs to be addressed.
If you didn’t like Starmer, Burnham won’t be any better. Burnham has spent that past few months strutting acting very much like the ‘King of the North’ – and yeah it does feel as if the UK is caught up in an episode of the later series of Game of Thrones. The same knives that were out for Starmer will be out soon enough for him.
I take small comfort that its not Rayner – can’t stand her, she’s very much like the rest of the champagne socialists, they talk the talk but in the end they are just like the rest of the them. Once they get a bit of power it all goes to their heads. And yeah she was def at it when she got caught trying to defraud HMRC.
Kaiser, you nailed it when you observed, “David Cameron really put a curse on Downing Street or perhaps a curse on modern British politics.” He did!!!! But you’re wrong when you say, “ Britain’s media and pale-and-stale political class had their knives out for Starmer from the start.” That is not true at all. In fact, the entire Starmer premiership was a kind of put-up job by a constellation of stakeholders, as a corporate jargon glossary would have it, and there was no bigger stakeholder than the UK media, which made Starmer out to be a leader he proved utterly incapable of being, such was the gap between the hype and the man’s actual track record in office. The media had their knives out for Jeremy Corbyn, who preceded Starmer as Labour leader. He was knifed repeatedly until Starmer effortlessly slotted into his job as the leader of the Labour Party. Likewise, the Tory party was knifed repeatedly when they proved unable to do so much as stop the small boats, that have become a particular point of fixation for xenophobes, despite them carrying refugees who are literally fleeing for their lives. Such is the state of the modern UK, these helpless people are perceived as an invasion force. Really. Starmer was a creature of the media machine and the reality simply failed to live up to the hype. They were trying to square the circle, that is, to jettison the Tories, without having to embrace a truly left-wing government, which is what Corbyn represented. Starmer was Labour only in the sense that he was not Tory. He doesn’t have any other commitment to social justice, besides balancing the budget. Which is necessary but not really apt to produce a groundswell of popular support in a country that has — for 20 years — seen the cost of living double, whilst real wages are stagnant. People are fed up. Hence the appeal of left and right ideologies. Starmer was supposed to keep Corbyn and Farage out. Farage is leader of Reform, the far right party that pushed the Tories into Brexit, which everyone now acknowledges was a disaster.
The Labour Party has changed dramatically since Tony Blair, who set out to sideline the party’s left wing and replace it with centrists advocating policies similar to those of the Conservatives.
Yes, the British establishment, with the support of certain media outlets, conducted a campaign aimed at discrediting Jeremy Corbyn, which contributed to the rise of Keir Starmer. And I think that, even without the Epstein affair, this situation could not have lasted indefinitely.
The United Kingdom needs political reform and change. they will have to put an end to the neoliberal policies that have dominated since the Thatcher era. In my view, this is one of the reasons for the country’s persistent political instability: prime ministers change, but the policies remain largely the same.
Perhaps Left Wing political parties 🌎 wide will FINALLY learn the lesson that being “Centrist” DESTROYS the party that’s stands for democracy & FOSTERS fascism…until then 💔🇬🇧💔 AND 💔🇺🇸💔 will CONTINUE to deal with THIS tired ass political BS🤬
The British Labour party has never really embraced social justice issues and seems uncomfortable doing so. It has pretty much thrown trans people under the bus. Labour was founded as a force to counter British classism and end economic inequality. But modern Britain is more complex than that. Here in the States, the Democratic party is more of a social justice party and often struggles with class and income inequality. Thus you have folks like Bernie Sanders trying to make it into the British Labour party.
Why are you always the one speaking the gospel? From your fingertips to the DNC!
Starmer betrayed the people who elected him. One of his government’s first act was to cut benefits to people with disabilities. It’s been downhill from there. Good riddance.
He got a shot but only because people were so desperate to finally be rid of the tories. Even I voted Labour through gritted teeth (and ended up with a Green MP anyway). He inherited a mess and has done a terrible job.
We voted Labour but didn’t get a Labour government.
As a Brit, I’m genuinely exhausted by the changing of prime ministers every 2 years. And no it’s not going to stop because we’re going to be back here in 18 months when Burnham can’t fix the country in 6 months either.
Also the newspapers want Reform in so they’ll never give Labour a fair chance.
What crimes did Starmer commit, exactly? Did he fool the UK into voting for Brexit, then negotiate a hard Brexit no-one wanted? Did he mismanage and lie about COVID? Did he crash the economy and drive up inflation and interest rates with a stupid mini-budget? Did he take the UK into a Gulf war? So he wasn’t a great inspirational leader and wasn’t as hard-charging as some would like and tried too hard to appease Trump by appointing Mandelson. Does that really justify booting him out after 2 years, especially to replace him with … Andy Burnham?
I give it 12 months before the knives are out for Andy Burnham.
I agree with other posters that the far-right owned media and establishment, emboldened and funded by Trump and Elon Musk, will not rest until there is a far-right government in the UK.
Labour MPs and the British public are deluding themselves that replacing Keir Starmer will make any difference.
I have to laugh at how in British politics you can replace prime ministers without any input from the actual voters. I understand this is the parliamentary system, but it would never work here. In the US two years ago we had a president step down as a candidate for reelection and there were people demanding a primary to choose his replacement as candidate even though there was only three months to go before the election and less than that till early voting. There are plenty of people still mad about “no primary” in summer of 2024. They seem blissfully unaware that most of our greatest presidents were chosen by party elders in smoke filled backrooms before the primary system. And that didn’t really develop till the nineteen seventies. Yet, here you have the UK changing prime ministers every couple of years with no vote by the people at all! This would cause a revolution here. 😱🤯💥
I think they’re just different systems. Are the problems less in either of them? – doesn’t seem like it.
When the world was a little more normal-seeming I would have generally thought of the U.S. system as robust, but since Trump is president I really don’t think the USA has anything to flex about either right now.
It’s tempting to say that this is the post COVID world, but both Brexit and Trump predate COVID. I think that ordinary citizens feel left out of the economy and the political system. That began in the sixties and seventies. And I also think that the UK is going to have to find more ways to involve it’s voters in big decisions like changing prime ministers between elections. Part of the appeal of fascist parties like Reform is they understand the need FOR reform, even if their proposed solutions are terrible.
We (the US) have nothing to flex about right now. I’m in agreement with Thinking. A revolution here? In the USA? We can’t even muster sustained protests when our citizens are killed in the streets, immigrants are being unconstitutionally ripped from the streets, and a known ring of billionaire PDFiles are allowed to swan away into the land of no-accountability. Our electoral college and checks and balances systems were easily manipulated, and yet we sit here all “woe is me.” It’s frustrating, but we must continue to fight – not compare ourselves favorably to other nations that are also suffering?
I’m not flexing! Both systems need major reforms. And the outcry over changing leadership without consulting the voters would be loud and insistent. I was exaggerating for effect talking about revolution. Don’t know why you thought I was giving the US a pass. 🤔 I hate it here right now.
Americans are not in a place to say anything. They re elected a demented rapist who is setting the world on fire and blowing up treaties and trade deals and risking war.
And let’s not forget that it was Starmer stupidly hiring Mendelssohn that has pushed this over. Starmer was not linked to Epstein, but Mendelssohn was one of Epstein’s buddies and British people were very upset about this.
Meanwhile Americans re elected someone they know was friends with Epstein and participating in the sick trafficking. Where is your revolution over this?
Americans have been shot in the head by ICE … where is your revolution about this?
Until Americans clean up their own house and purge the White House, you really can’t say anything about the British system because they aren’t the ones who unleashed a sick old man on the world.
We are fast becoming like Italy/France with new PM every other month!!!!!!😶😶😶😶
I still remember people here raving about Starmer winning and someone from the UK was trying to tell everyone that Starmer wasn’t going to be a good PM because he was too right wing. She was right. He tried to court the British press by implementing right wing policies and he purged all the leftists from his party. The Mandelson debacle was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Plus if the economy was doing well he wouldn’t have resigned.
Is this an opening for Farage to become PM? I worry that’s what’s coming next…
I seem to be reading the take here that Starmer wasn’t progressive enough and was really kind of Tory Lite?Can anyone give specific examples of that? I admit I haven’t been following it that closely from across the Pond. When I go onto Twitter I often see people hating on him from both sides of the aisle, and got the sense that he was just kind of an ineffectual politician. But I clearly don’t have a lot of solid information to go on.
I am not one bit surprised. The UK and the US have been on the same bad path since at least the gruesome twosome of Thatcher and Reagan. Throw in the increasing consolidation of the media under just a handful of straight up Bond villains and here we are.
Agree, Sid.
Though Reagan wouldn’t even win a GOP primary these days — he supported immigration and spoke of the US as a “city on the hill” for people from other countries. He would be denounced as a woke liberal by the Murdoch press.