Starmer quits, Burnham strong contender for post

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ended all speculation about his future on Monday by announcing his resignation, less than two years after guiding the Labour Party to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election.

His resignation means the United Kingdom will have its seventh prime minister in just over a decade. Amid the imminent change, the British pound slid as much as 0.4 percent to touch $1.3181 early on Monday, approaching its 2026 low of $1.3159 set in March, before paring losses. The yield of the UK 10-year gilt bonds, a benchmark for what the Treasury pays to borrow money, edged up from 4.84 percent to 4.85 percent, while the yield on 30-year gilts rose from 5.54 percent to 5.55 percent.

Doubts over Starmer's leadership had been growing for some time, particularly after the recent damaging local election results, for which Starmer took personal responsibility.

In an address outside his Downing Street office, Starmer said that he had "heard the answer of my Parliamentary party" as to whether he was "best placed" to lead it into the next general election. "I accept that answer with good grace," he added, saying that he would continue until his successor was chosen.

Starmer became Labour Party leader in April 2020, replacing Jeremy Corbyn, who had led the party to a heavy defeat in the 2019 general election. He faced three Conservative prime ministers before Labour won 411 of the 650 seats in the 2024 general election. However, although this gave Labour a clear Parliamentary majority, it secured just 34 percent of the popular vote, the smallest share received by any majority government since World War II.

With the main right-wing party, the Conservatives, having lost support to Reform UK, another British right-wing party, Starmer's critics accused him of focusing too much on trying to win votes from Reform, particularly over immigration, rather than appealing to more traditional Labour or progressive voters.

He was criticized for his handling of the appointment of former British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, who resigned over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. May's local elections further weakened his position.

One person cited as a potential leadership contender, Wes Streeting, quit as health secretary earlier, saying: "Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift … It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election."

On the day Starmer resigned, the man widely tipped to replace him, Andy Burnham, returned to Parliament after nine years away as mayor of Greater Manchester.

Burnham tried to return to Parliament in January by running as a Labour candidate in a by-election, only to be blocked by party bosses, whose preferred candidate lost.

As Starmer's position weakened, a sitting Labour member resigned his seat, allowing Burnham to run in another by-election last week, which he won comfortably.

Nominations for any leadership election will begin on July 9 and stay open for a week, allowing a new leader to be chosen before Parliament returns from summer recess in September.

London-based political analyst Keith Bennett told China Daily that Burnham's win made Starmer's exit inevitable.

"The gradual erosion of his authority in the Parliamentary Labour Party and then the Cabinet was turning into a flood that would have swept him from office in any case," he said.

Bennett said that Burnham's win showed that he was a more popular option with party members and the wider electorate. Should he become leader, he could offer a genuine change of approach, although quite what that would be remains unclear, Bennett added.

"Much will depend on the make-up of a new Cabinet, but above all the serious nature of the challenges facing the country remains unchanged.

"A change at the top gives Labour a chance to prevail at the next general election, but only a chance — much will depend on how events unfold, many of which will be outside the government's control," he said.

"The local election results showed people are impatient for the change that was promised," London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.