Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a career-defining decision: resign or fight off a possible challenge from Labor rival Andy Burnham.
Starmer has publicly vowed to stay in office, but pressure is mounting as many of his Labor colleagues conclude his time is up. Hopes are growing that he will announce his resignation plan as soon as Monday. That’s the day Burnham will be sworn in as an MP in the House of Commons after winning a special election last week.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said on Sunday that Starmer was “taking time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities he faces.”
“I know he is a prime minister who always puts his country first,” Kyle told the BBC, although he said reports that Starmer would resign were “speculation.”
Starmer is spending the weekend at Checkers, the country mansion used by the prime minister, with his family. He didn’t say anything publicly about his decision, but he did post a Father’s Day message on social media.
“Being a father is my greatest joy. Today, I think about my father, and the father I am to my children because of him,” he wrote on X.
US President Donald Trump weighed in even before the announcement, linking Starmer’s possible exit to two of his recurring bugs: immigration and renewable energy.
“Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He failed miserably on the two most important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him the best!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network.
If Starmer leaves, he will be the sixth prime minister to step down in the past 10 years, a staggering level of turmoil in the United Kingdom.
Discontent with the prime minister has been building for months, with Labor advocates seeking to reverse the government’s slide in popularity since Starmer led the left-wing party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.
The victory of former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham raises further speculation about the Labor Party’s leadership challenge to unpopular British prime minister Keir Starmer. Polls suggest Burnham is likely to defeat Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party in the general election.
He has struggled to deliver the economic growth he promised, fixing crumbling public services and easing the cost of living, and has been dogged by repeated mistakes, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a disgraced friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as UK ambassador to the United States.
Labor is losing liberal voters to the growing Green Party and is facing the rise of Reform UK, the anti-immigrant party led by Nigel Farage that consistently leads in opinion polls across the country.
Burnham, until this week the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, won the seat of Makerfield in the north-west of England in a special election held on Thursday. He took nearly 55 percent of the 45,510 votes, more than 9,000 more than second-placed Reform UK.
Now that Burnham is becoming a lawmaker, he is in a position to challenge Starmer for the leadership of the Labor Party. Burnham’s acceptance speech left no doubt that he wants to lead the team and the country.
“Everyone knows that politics doesn’t work,” he said. “Everybody can feel that the country is not where it should be. Tonight could be a turning point.”
It is not clear whether Burnham will face a nomination or a challenge, if Starmer steps down. Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month in opposition to Starmer’s leadership, said he would run if there was one.
Starmer congratulated Burnham on Friday, but insisted he would fight any attempts to sack him.
“I’ll run, I’ll stand” if there’s a Labor leadership contest, Starmer said. “I have said many times that I will not leave.”
But Charlie Falconer, the senior Labor member of the House of Lords, said on Saturday Starmer had “no authority” left.
“There should be an agreed transition process where Andy and Keir work together on when the handover should happen,” he told the BBC.
