British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stepped down as leader of the ruling Labour Party and will be leaving office in the coming weeks. “Keir Starmer has announced he will resign as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party,” the BBC reported Monday morning.
Addressing reporters outside 10 Downing Street, the outgoing prime minister said that he is “putting the country I love first” and “[t]hat is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party.”
The decision stems from the Labour Party’s recent electoral decline and weak prospects for the general election in three years. “Starmer says the question his party is asking is whether he is best placed to lead it into the next general election,” the BBC added.
After nearly two years in office, Starmer’s tenure was overshadowed by controversies and failure. He “spoke of his successes in No 10 but there was no acknowledgment of his litany of failings,” The Times of London observed.
Starmer is expected to be replaced by his Labour Party rival and former UK health secretary, Andy Burnham. “Burnham’s path to No 10 has been cleared after Wes Streeting backed him to become the next prime minister,” The Telegraph reported. “Mr Burnham confirmed that he would seek to replace Sir Keir after the Prime Minister announced that he would bow to pressure from Labour MPs and trigger a leadership race.”
Riding high in the polls, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for immediate elections to “fix” Britain. “Farage has demanded a snap general election just moments after Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he will resign as Prime Minister pending a Labour leadership contest,” the UK TV channel GB News reported.
Starmer, whose administration went after thousands of Brits over hate speech each year, was almost in tears over his departure. The Telegraph noted that the 62-year-old politician was “on [the] verge of tears” and “choked up” as he concluded his resignation speech.
In his parting speech, Starmer admitted that when he took over leadership of the Labour Party from far-left activist Jeremy Corbyn, the party was “politically, financially, and morally bankrupt.” In 2020, Corbyn was removed from his post after he turned the Labour Party into a nesting ground for Jew-haters, Muslim radicals, and left-wing extremists.
The day before Starmer announced his resignation, President Donald Trump confirmed that the UK leader was going to step down. In the past, Trump criticized Starmer over green-energy and open-border policies.
“Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,” he wrote on Truth Social. “He failed badly on two very important subjects – IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (…).”
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