Keir Starmer resigns: Why now, and What happens next

Last Updated on 2 weeks ago by TodayWhy Editorial

Update, July 20, 2026: Keir Starmer has formally left office. Andy Burnham was confirmed as Labour leader unopposed on July 17, and today, Monday, July 20, Starmer traveled to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to King Charles III before Burnham arrived to be formally appointed. Burnham is now the UK’s 59th prime minister. The sections below have been updated to reflect the full handover; the original reporting on Starmer’s resignation announcement is preserved beneath.

Keir Starmer has confirmed he will resign as UK Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, ending months of speculation with a statement outside 10 Downing Street on Monday, June 22. The announcement makes official what had been widely expected since Andy Burnham’s decisive victory in the Makerfield by-election on June 19, and it sets Britain on course for its seventh prime minister in a decade.

Starmer told reporters, in remarks covered live by the BBC, that nominations for a new Labour leader will open on July 9, with a timetable designed so a successor is in place before Parliament returns from its summer break in September. He said he had already spoken with King Charles III to inform him of the decision, and that he will remain in office in a caretaker capacity until the leadership contest concludes. “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” Starmer said, adding that he accepted the answer from his own MPs “with good grace.”

Table of Contents

Why Now: The Burnham Trigger

The immediate catalyst was Andy Burnham’s special election win in Makerfield, which returned the former Greater Manchester mayor to the House of Commons and positioned him as the clear favorite to succeed Starmer. Nicknamed the “King of the North” for his advocacy on behalf of England’s northern regions, Burnham used his victory speech to frame the moment as a “change moment” for a party desperate to reverse its collapse in the polls.

That collapse has been building for months. An Ipsos poll reported by Reuters published shortly before the resignation found that 52 percent of the British public believed Starmer should step down, up five points from May, against 35 percent who wanted him to continue. Labour also lost more than 1,000 council seats in May’s local elections, a result widely read inside the party as a verdict on Starmer’s leadership less than two years after his landslide 2024 general election win.

A Cabinet Under Strain

Starmer’s authority had already been eroded by a string of senior departures. Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned last month with a pointed critique of what he called the government’s indecision, and was seen as weighing his own leadership bid. Defence Secretary John Healey quit days later in a dispute over military funding, accusing Starmer of failing to deliver on defence spending promises he had publicly made.

Compounding the damage was the fallout from Starmer’s December 2024 decision to appoint Labour grandee Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States, despite Mandelson’s documented friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer eventually withdrew Mandelson from the post after further details of their correspondence surfaced, but faced sustained questions in Parliament over what he knew and when.

Trump Weighs In

Even before Monday’s confirmation, US President Donald Trump inserted himself into the story, posting on Truth Social that Starmer “will resign” and had “failed badly” on immigration and energy policy, specifically criticizing the UK’s restrictions on North Sea oil drilling. The intervention reflected a relationship between the two leaders that has cooled noticeably since Starmer’s election, strained further by disagreements over the Iran war and broader Middle East policy.

How the Handover Actually Played Out

Burnham cleared his final hurdle on July 17, when Labour confirmed him as party leader unopposed after he secured nominations from 379 of the party’s 403 MPs — a margin that made a contested race unnecessary and let the “coronation” scenario play out largely as expected. He told the party’s special conference he intended to give Britons “hope back,” pledging “good growth in every postcode” and a shift of power away from Westminster toward local leaders.

Starmer used his final days in office to collect a string of international honors: French President Emmanuel Macron awarded him the Legion of Honor on July 14 for his work on European security, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented him with Ukraine’s Order of Freedom on a farewell visit to Kyiv two days later, citing his support through the war with Russia.

On Monday, July 20, Starmer traveled to Buckingham Palace to formally tender his resignation to the King. In his final remarks, he said serving as prime minister had been “the privilege of my life” and that he leaves Britain “stronger and fairer than it was two years ago.” Burnham followed him to the Palace, where King Charles III asked him to form a government; a Palace statement confirmed Burnham “accepted The King’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.” At 56, Burnham became the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade and its 59th overall — having gone from winning a by-election to running the country in just five weeks.

What Happens Next, Now That Burnham Is In Office

Whoever took over was always going to inherit a difficult hand: the UK carries the highest borrowing costs in the G7, and Burnham faces the same constraints that hemmed in Starmer — bond markets wary of additional borrowing and a public frustrated by stagnant living standards. He’ll also face pressure to define himself quickly, arriving in Downing Street largely unknown to voters outside Greater Manchester, with the populist Reform UK party continuing to gain ground in the polls. For more on his politics and record, see our profile of Andy Burnham and our explainer on why he wants to devolve income tax to mayors.

How We Got Here: The Slow-Motion Collapse

1. The May 2026 Local Election Wipeout

Labour lost more than 1,100 council seats across England in the May 2026 local elections, while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK gained over 1,450. The results triggered the first major wave of resignation calls, with more than 80 Labour MPs publicly demanding Starmer set a departure timetable within days of the vote.

2. Wes Streeting’s Cabinet Resignation

On May 14, Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned, telling Starmer in his resignation letter that he had “lost confidence” in his leadership and that remaining in government would be “dishonourable and unprincipled.” Streeting did not immediately launch a leadership bid — he needed the backing of 81 Labour MPs (one-fifth of the parliamentary party) to trigger a contest and acknowledged he did not yet have it — but he confirmed days later he would stand if a contest were triggered. Starmer’s official reply, published by Number 10, called the local election results “extremely tough” while defending the government’s NHS record.

3. The Mandelson Scandal Never Fully Went Away

The fallout from Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Ambassador to the United States — including his Epstein links and reports he failed security vetting before being appointed anyway — continued to shadow Starmer through the spring. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 and his Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over the appointment in February 2026, but critics continued to cite the episode as evidence of poor judgment at the top of government.

4. The June Defence Spending Revolt

In June, a separate crisis hit the Ministry of Defence: Defence Secretary John Healey resigned on June 11 over what he called an inadequate Defence Investment Plan, arguing the settlement risked leaving the armed forces under-resourced amid the war in Ukraine and the 2026 Iran conflict. Armed Forces minister Al Carns and a parliamentary aide, Pamela Nash, resigned alongside him. By this point, more than 100 Labour MPs — roughly a quarter of the parliamentary party — had publicly called for Starmer to quit or set a timetable, even as a competing group of 110+ backbenchers signed a letter opposing a leadership contest.

5. Burnham Clears the Path

Burnham’s June 19 by-election win is the event widely seen as the final trigger. Unlike Streeting, who lacked the 81 MP nominations needed, Burnham entered Parliament as the candidate Labour figures across the party viewed as having the strongest electoral appeal — particularly in the north of England, where Reform UK has made its deepest inroads. That electoral logic held all the way through: no rival ever assembled a serious challenge, and Burnham’s nomination count on July 17 confirmed it.

Why Is Keir Starmer Under Pressure to Resign?

Frequently asked questions

Why did Keir Starmer resign?
Starmer resigned after a wave of Cabinet departures, a local-election wipeout, and the return of Andy Burnham to Parliament removed his practical path to staying on. He announced the decision June 22 and formally left office July 20.

Who is the UK’s new prime minister?
Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, was confirmed as Labour leader unopposed on July 17 and formally appointed prime minister by King Charles III on July 20.

Was there a leadership contest?
Not a contested one. Burnham secured nominations from 379 of Labour’s 403 MPs, clearing the threshold needed to be confirmed without a full membership vote.

What is Keir Starmer doing now?
He has left government entirely, having formally resigned to the King on July 20 after nearly six weeks as a caretaker prime minister.

Conclusion

Keir Starmer’s position went from “wounded but defiant” to a confirmed resignation in the space of six weeks — and the proximate cause was specific: Andy Burnham’s return to Parliament on June 19 removed the last practical barrier to a leadership challenge, and Starmer concluded that negotiating his own exit was preferable to fighting one. The handover that followed was as orderly as the Eurasia Group and other analysts had predicted: an uncontested leadership confirmation on July 17, followed by a formal Palace transfer of power on July 20. Attention now shifts to whether Burnham can do what Starmer could not: stop the bleeding to Reform UK before the next general election in 2029.