British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign on Monday, sets out timetable for departure: Report
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been struggling to hold his government together amid a growing internal leadership crisis and collapse in public support
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been struggling to hold his government together amid a growing internal leadership crisis and collapse in public support, is likely to resign on Monday, June 22, a UK media report has claimed. According to Britain's Observer newspaper, Starmer was expected to resign on Monday and set out a timetable for his departure. Starmer was discussing the matter with his wife at his Chequers country residence before making a final decision, but senior Labour figures expected a clear statement on his future as early as Monday, according to The Observer. Starmer, from landslide victory to power struggle Starmer, who became the UK Prime Minister in July 2024 after the Labour Party’s landslide victory, which ended 14 years of Conservative rule has failed to maintain the momentum ever since. In the nearly two years since then, Starmer has become deeply unpopular, thanks to a series of scandals and policy U-turns that have given many voters an overall impression that he cannot deliver the improvement to their standards of living that he promised.
More than 100 elected lawmakers in Starmer's party - roughly a quarter of all Labour representatives in the House of Commons - have publicly said they want him to quit or set out a timetable for his exit, according to a Reuters tally. Starmer's challenger to enter Parliament The final blow came on Friday, when his rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament that would allow him to launch a formal leadership challenge. Burnham, a 56-year-old career politician, is seen by many in Labour as the most likely successor to Starmer - whether through a negotiated transfer of power or a formal leadership contest. Who is Andy Burnham? Having built a power base within Labour as mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England, he comfortably saw off the threat from Nigel Farage's right-wing populist party to win an election for a vacant parliamentary seat on Friday.
Burnham did not immediately make a formal challenge to Starmer but used his victory address to promise a new path for the country. His allies have urged Starmer to agree to step down and hand over power voluntarily. Burnham, who joined the Labour Party as a teenager, attended Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001. He was a lawmaker for a decade and a half, rising through the ranks under Prime Minister Tony Blair and serving in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010. He ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party, in 2010 and 2015, and lost each time, before quitting Westminster to run for Manchester mayor. His tenure has seen him nicknamed the King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his barely disguised political ambition.
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