British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday following mounting pressure after veteran Labour politician Andy Burnham’s resounding victory in a crucial by-election on Friday.
“Every decision I have taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party,” Starmer said in a speech outside 10 Downing Street.
Burnham, 56, is now poised to become the party leader and prime minister after being sworn in as an MP on Monday.
Speaking outside Downing Street, Starmer said, “The Labour Party was politically bankrupt before I took over,” adding, “We have closed all asylum seeker hotels in Britain.”
He continued, “We have made the British economy stronger in two years, and I will remain Prime Minister until a new Labour leader is chosen.”
Starmer’s resignation comes after less than two years in office, amid declining support from his cabinet and party MPs.
With Starmer’s departure, Britain will get its seventh prime minister in a decade — an unprecedented rate of churn in its modern history.
Starmer said that he asked Labour’s National Executive Committee to set out a timetable for a leadership contest, with nominations set to open on 9 July and close before the summer parliamentary recess on 16 July.
Burnham, who has been mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, had announced his intention to run for the Labour leadership, warning in his victory speech that the party had “its last chance for change.”
If successful, he will automatically become prime minister, given the Labour Party’s comfortable majority in Parliament. EIR
