British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that he will step down as head of government and leader of the Labour Party. He made the statement on the morning of 22 June outside 10 Downing Street, in remarks broadcast by BBC News.
Starmer said his party had begun questioning whether he was the right person to lead it into the next general election. “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace,” he said. Starmer confirmed he had informed King Charles III of his decision that morning.
The Prime Minister will remain in office until a successor is chosen, in order to ensure an “orderly handover of power.” Nominations for the party leadership will open on 9 July and close before the summer recess on 16 July; in the event of a contest, a new leader must be in place before Parliament returns in September.
The frontrunner is Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, who won a by-election last week to become Labour MP for Makerfield. Burnham arrived in London on Monday and was sworn in as a member of Parliament — making him eligible to succeed Starmer. He swiftly confirmed his candidacy. Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, long seen as his most likely rival, instead endorsed Burnham.
Starmer became Prime Minister in the summer of 2024 after Labour’s landslide defeat of the Conservatives. His position weakened sharply after the party’s rout in the May 2026 local elections, where Labour ceded a significant share of the vote to Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK. The BBC notes that Starmer’s popularity fell steeply as he failed to convince voters of his ability to improve the economy, while critics faulted him for lacking a clear direction for the country.
Starmer’s resignation comes almost exactly ten years after the referendum on leaving the European Union. His successor will be the UK’s seventh leader in a decade.
