Potential successor: Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, looks likely to replace Starmer within weeks. Another potential challenger, former health minister Wes Streeting, today backed Burnham and ruled himself out.
Political upheaval: Starmer’s announcement comes just two years after his center-left Labour party swept into power with a landslide majority – and almost 10 years to the day since Britain voted to leave the European Union, plunging the country into a decade worth of political instability.
The UK’s May local elections could be viewed as the beginning of the end of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s premiership, after the populist hard-right Reform UK party won big, with Starmer’s center-left Labour party losing hundreds of seats.
The Labour Party leader vowed to press on, saying that “what we witnessed with the last government was the chaos of constantly changing leaders, and it cost this country a huge amount.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has consistently called for a general election since May, most recently saying this morning that his party “demands a general election to fix broken Britain.”
Farage, who has been working in and around politics for three decades, is staunchly anti-immigration, was the architect of Brexit, and is an ally of US President Donald Trump.
He has been accused of deeply offensive, racist and antisemitic behavior throughout his teenage years.
The Reform UK party aims to “restore Britain’s power, reward hard work, defend our culture, and put the British people first,” its website says.The first four policies listed on Reform’s website relate to immigration.
“Illegal immigration is out of control,” the party says, vowing to “remove all illegal migrants from the UK” and “ensure that anyone who enters the country illegally will be ineligible for asylum.”
Reform also promises to “defend and protect British culture and traditions,” “dramatically cut foreign aid” and scrap environmental policies in support of British farmers, among other policies, should it get into power.
Following his party’s gains in the May elections, Farage said that Reform was no longer a “fluke or a protest vote,” but a “truly national party” that was “here to stay.”
Keir Starmer is “a decent guy” despite losing the support of lawmakers within his own governing Labour Party, according to one Londoner responding to the UK prime minister’s resignation today.
“I thought Keir Starmer was a decent guy. And, it just seems to be a modern day phenomenon that British prime ministers don’t last very long,” Charles Guthrie, a lawyer, told the Reuters news agency. “So I was very, disappointed with that. I think he did his best. He’s very sincere, very true, but he just lost the support of his MPs ultimately.”
Global leaders have been reacting to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation this morning.As we’ve been reporting, Starmer was visible on the world stage amid a number of global crises.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Starmer for his “support and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger.” He added that “every meeting and every conversation we have had has always been filled with real substance.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Starmer “it can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years. European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you.”
And, referencing Starmer’s efforts to reset the UK’s relationship with Europe following Brexit, European Council President António Costa said “we turned a new page in EU-UK relations. The EU is committed to continued cooperation in this spirit.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Starmer “can be proud of the contribution he has made to the country he loves and to the Labour Party that he led back to Government in 2024.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow “won’t remember him for anything remarkable during his tenure,” adding that “it’s unlikely anyone in the UK political scene will have a different position on our bilateral relations than Keir Starmer.”