Analysis: Why Keir Starmer resigned
Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday (June 22, 2026) morning, just under two years after leading Labour in a landslide victory in July 2024
Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday (June 22, 2026) morning, just under two years after leading Labour in a landslide victory in July 2024. This happened despite the fact that the U.K. saw some of its important economic parameters improving in the last two years. It had the strongest economic growth in Q1 2026 relative to its G7 peers and inflation had been falling to the Bank of England’s target level of 2%, for instance. The waitlists for medical appointments in the U.K.’s universal healthcare system had also fallen. Net immigration numbers — a hot button — had also declined, though some of this could reasonably be attributed to policies of the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak. However, the above was not enough to keep Mr. Starmer in No. 10 Downing Street until the end of this Parliament. His popularity within the Labour Party, his historically low performance in opinion polls, poor judgement calls in political appointments, recent electoral losses for Labour and fears around the growth in Reform and other hard right parties were among the reasons he was compelled to resign. His political fate was all but sealed when Labour’s ‘King of the North’, former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham won a seat in Westminster (the U.K.’s Parliament) last week, after winning a bye-election. Labour’s infighting The factionalism within Labour became evident within a year of Mr. Starmer becoming Prime Minister. The seeds of this were sown earlier when Mr. Starmer moved himself and the Labour party towards the centre. He suspended former left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn as part of a move to distance the party from a perception of anti-semitism.
This does not explain the entire picture either. The domestic and global environment in which the Labour party operated has been fluctuating these past two years, and this has resulted in MPs coalescing around multiple centres of gravity as far as policy is concerned. While the Conservatives, who were historically the mainstream party of the right in the U.K., being decimated in the 2024 elections, the hard right Reform U.K. party and now, Restore Britain, which is even further right of Reform, have been gaining in strength. Britain has been no exception to the higher levels of political polarization seen world over in the last decade. All of this has created pressure on Labour from both the right (such as from Reform) and the left (such as the Greens). More than 120 of the 403 Labour MPs in the House of Commons revolted against proposed welfare cuts, forcing Mr. Starmer to walk these back significantly in June 2025. There was further backlash from within the party to changes in immigration policy announced in November 2025, fundamentally changing the model of immigration to the U.K., restricting or prolonging most pathways to permanent residence. Mr. Starmer and his allies have repeatedly argued that certain policies are necessary to keep Reform at bay. Low popularity in polls Starmer’s net favourability ratings have been deep in negative territory, where he has competed with Lizz Truss, who served as U.K. PM for just 49 days. His recent net favourability numbers have been in the -40 to -45 range. British commentators have tried — and struggled — to explain the cause for the Prime Minister’s unpopularity, proffering various reasons for this phenomenon.
The BriefWire