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Keir Starmer has quit as prime minister – what will happen next in UK politics?
Starmer lasted less than two years after winning a parliamentary landslide in 2024. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Starmer lasted less than two years after winning a parliamentary landslide in 2024. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian Explainer Keir Starmer has quit as prime minister – what will happen next in UK politics? Britain will soon have its fifth prime minister in four years. How did we get here and what challenges await Starmer’s successor? UK politics live – latest updates Britain is to get its fifth prime minister in four years after the current incumbent of Downing Street, Keir Starmer , announced on Monday that he would resign. It was widely expected and comes after months of mounting pressure on Starmer, who led the Labour party to a landslide victory in the 2024 UK general election but who has faced months of pressure to go from members of parliament (MPs) for the centre-left party. The announcement sets the scene for him to be replaced within weeks by Andy Burnham , who was a minister in the 2007-2010 government of Gordon Brown and, from 2017 until last week, the mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham is seen by many in Labour as the party’s best hope of defeating the challenge posed by the populist-right Reform party, led by Nigel Farage. How did British politics reach this point? Starmer, a softly spoken former human rights lawyer, had been hailed as a pragmatic and serious leader who could restore stability after years of political chaos and infighting that resulted in two changes of prime minister by the rightwing Conservative party after the 2019 general election. But although he was elected with the biggest parliamentary majority in 100 years, there was a sense even among Labour supporters that Starmer lacked political nous and conviction. This was underlined by missteps including cutting some winter fuel subsidies for pensioners and a U-turn on welfare in the face of a parliamentary rebellion last year. Graph showing tenures of UK prime ministers since Thatcher Starmer’s judgment was called into serious question after his decision to appoint a controversial former Labour minister, Peter Mandelson, as Britain’s ambassador to the US despite the latter’s known links to the child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein . After the true extent of Mandelson’s ties to Epstein became known in September 2025, Starmer sacked him – but it was too late to prevent the prime minister and his government from becoming embroiled in one of the worst political scandals since the second world war. All the while, and amid deep unpopularity among voters, panic has continued to grow in Labour ranks that he has been unable to meet the challenge from Reform UK, the anti-immigration party headed by the divisive Farage. Farage’s party routed Labour and the Conservatives in municipal elections last year and again last month , which was a catalyst for the draining away of support for Starmer and resignations by ministers
