Keir Starmer will resign as leader of the Labour Party and prime minister, he has announced in a speech outside No 10.
Nominations for a leadership contest will open on 9 July with a new leader and prime minister in place by the end of parliament’s summer recess in early September. If the leadership election is not contested and Andy Burnham is the only candidate, then he could become prime minister as soon as next month.
“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,” Starmer said before setting out a timetable for departure.
He said he had spoken to the King on Monday morning (22 June) to tell him of his decision. He will now ask Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to draw up the terms of a party leadership contest.
Nominations for a contest among MPs, Starmer said, will open on 9 July and close by the summer recess. This is intended to ensure that a new Labour leader and prime minister is in place in time for its party conference in Liverpool later in the autumn.
Starmer said he would remain in post until the leadership contest is complete and give “full support” to his successor. “I will do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover of power,” he said. Starmer was emotional and seemed on the brink of tears as he said he would leave “the biggest job in the country” to spend more time on “the most important job”, being a husband and father.
In his resignation speech he highlighted his achievements, saying that he had rescued the Labour Party from financial, moral and electoral peril and that he had put Britain on a stronger footing economically and in terms of its international standing with allies. He said becoming prime minister had been “the proudest moment of my life”.
As our political editor Ailbhe Rea reported, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Vidhya Alakeson told No 10 staff this morning that Starmer would announce his resignation today. On Downing Street, a podium and sound system were placed outside the black door as it became clear Starmer’s departure was inevitable.
Britain is now due to get its seventh prime minister in ten years. Starmer was told by multiple Cabinet ministers over the weekend that his position was no longer tenable following Andy Burnham’s Makerfield by-election victory and Labour’s disastrous results in the May elections. Political advisers and loyal ministers gathered outside No 10 to cheer Starmer as he announced the end of his premiership.
[Further reading: Keir Starmer: A Political Obituary]
Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to commentAnyone but Andy Manchesterism has two distinct definitions. Historically, it refers to a 19th-century pro-free-trade economic doctrine. In modern politics, it describes a 21st-century “business-friendly socialism” championed by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Manchester has become Singapore on Irwell How far we have fallen when getting a bus to run on time is seen as sufficient reason to be PM