Britain is stronger than before, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in his farewell speech at Downing Street on Monday.
This marks his final day in the role and will see him heading to meet King Charles at Buckingham Palace, where he will formally resign.
“My work is done. In six and a half years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country, and won a landslide general election victory in 2024. Since then, it has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country as prime minister. And I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago,” he said at Downing Street.
“Immigration is down significantly, our defense and security are on a far stronger footing, and our international reputation is greatly enhanced,” he added.
“We face a world now where our enemies will stop at nothing to divide us because of our values, our freedom, our decency, and frankly, because of our unflinching resolve towards the great people of Ukraine,” Starmer said.
Sir Keir Starmer became the UK’s Prime Minister on 5 July 2024, a day after the last general election. He had been a Member of Parliament since 2015 and the Labour Party’s leader since 2020.
“I am so proud that we leave the country in a much better state than we found it two years ago on the economy, on public services, on protection for children, on defense and security, and on our international reputation in particular. That’s the test for any prime minister. Do you leave your country in a better place than you found it? And that test and that answer is a yes,” Starmer said in a video posted on X on Sunday.
The test of any Prime Minister is: do you leave your country in a better place than you found it?
On the international stage, Starmer spent his first year in power strengthening relationships with Donald Trump, which led to a “breakthrough” UK–U.S. trade deal. Despite this, the partnership appeared weak when, in recent months, Trump criticized Starmer for not supporting initial U.S. strikes on Iran.
Starmer also sought closer relations with the European Union. He insisted that the UK “must be at the heart of a stronger Europe.” Starmer has been a vocal supporter of a “Brexit-reset” and the EU’s recovery loan scheme for Ukraine.
As of today, Andy Burnham officially becomes the UK’s new prime minister, despite having been confirmed as party leader on Friday.
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