UK PM Keir Starmer resigns amid party rebellion

The United Kingdom’s revolving door at prime minister is spinning once again. PM Keir Starmer announced plans to resign yesterday, clearing the way for the sixth prime minister in the past seven years at the head of the world’s fifth-largest economy.

Anatomy of a fall

Starmer was elected PM in summer 2024 with the second-largest parliamentary majority since World War II, after his left-leaning Labour party swept into power. But pressure has been building for months amid dire poll ratings and a series of political missteps.

• Starmer drew controversy early on for accepting valuable gifts, including designer spectacles and Taylor Swift concert tickets.
• The rest of his tenure featured a series of policy U-turns in the form of failed attempts to cut welfare spending, expand employment rights, enact mandatory digital IDs for citizens, and more.
• He also faced backlash over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US despite allegedly knowing that he failed his initial security vetting, and had extensive ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The final straw proved to be a recent trouncing for the Labour party in May local-election results, which saw the party lose power across dozens of city councils in its worst loss of the post-WWII period.

What’s next for the UK gov’t?...Starmer says he plans to stay on as a caretaker PM until a new Labour leader is chosen in the next few weeks. Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely seen as the leading candidate to replace Starmer at the head of the Labour Party, with a decisive victory in last week’s special election for Parliament cementing his front-runner status.