Prime Minister Keir Starmer has had his share of humiliations in recent weeks and months, but perhaps the worst and final insult was seeing his resignation today pre-announced yesterday by President Donald Trump on Truth Social. He had “failed,” was the president’s assessment.
Only a year ago, Starmer was being called the “Trump Whisperer” because of his apparently cordial relations with the mercurial leader. That all went wrong during the Iran conflict, when the PM refused to get involved in offensive operations. The Donald said he was “not Winston Churchill.”
Yet standing apart from the Iran adventure has been one of Starmer’s few obvious successes on the international stage. He was congratulated by many on his circumspection.
Starmer has also tried to move the UK closer to the EU regulatory environment, which has been less well received. And of course he has continued to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
That commitment of military materiel, which has denuded the UK of valuable stocks of ammunition, led to perhaps his final crisis two weeks ago, when the defense secretary, John Healey, resigned. Healey claimed that Starmer had failed to honor his promises to rebuild Britain’s much-diminished armed forces by increasing defense spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030. That promise now looks threadbare.
But Sir Keir did not go quietly today. His speech was delivered at the lectern outside Number 10, which has almost become part of the constitutional furniture of the UK during the last decade—a period that has seen no fewer than six UK prime ministers deliver often tearful goodbyes.
Sir Keir’s voice cracked as he paid tribute to his “fantastic wife” and “beautiful children” who had sacrificed so much for his political ambition.
But in the main, this was a fighting speech. He pointed out that only two years ago he had won Labour’s second-largest ever general election majority—something very few in his own party thought possible.
“Six years ago, I inherited a Labour Party that was politically, financially, and morally bankrupt,” he went on. “I was told, time and time again, that my party was finished. That we were consigned to history, that a majority at a general election, let alone a landslide majority, was impossible.” He is not wrong in that assessment.
Starmer went on to remind his MPs what he had to do to make Labour electable by purging the left: “Ripping out the poison of antisemitism, restoring trust on the economy, defense, and national security. And becoming a party that once again stood proudly with—not against—our national flag.”
Starmer then listed his achievements since then:
“Wages rising faster than inflation in every single month since we came to power. Investment secured, infrastructure being built. An end to austerity, with the fastest fall in NHS waiting lists for 17 years.”
The prime minister did not dwell on his mistakes: the shambles of his attempt to reform welfare, which was killed by a backbench rebellion; the small boats still arriving; the trafficker gangs he promised to “smash” but didn’t; the job-destroying tax increases. Then there was the Peter Mandelson scandal, and his own failure to declare gifts from businessmen.
Forget all that, he seemed to say. Things could only get better, to paraphrase Tony Blair’s famous victory anthem from 1997. The subtext was clear: Do you lot think Andy Burnham, the “King of the North” as he likes to be called, could do any better? What are you clowns on the PLP thinking, emulating the worst mistakes of the Tory years by indulging serial disloyalty?
His speech was a rebuke to the claque of discontents on the Parliamentary Labour Party who, terrified of losing their seats, coalesced around the folksy jeans-and-T-shirt Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham without really knowing what he stands for—apart from being more “human” and “empathetic”.
Starmer said he had heard the “questions” about his ability to win the next election for Labour and he had now “answered with good grace” by resigning. He recognized his unpopularity and lack of people skills.
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Perhaps this is why he allowed himself to have that moment of controlled breakdown at the end of his speech. I’m not saying he was insincere, but it looked just a little contrived from someone who had always controlled his emotions like the senior lawyer he is.
What happens now? Well, nothing really. Andy Burnham has not even been sworn in as a new MP. Nominations open for a leadership contest in three weeks—that is, if anyone is daft enough to challenge Mr. Burnham, who clearly has the vast majority of Labour MPs in his camp. His main rival, the former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, says he will support Burnham.
Only last week Starmer was insisting that he was “going nowhere” and that if there was any leadership election his hat would be in the ring. They always say a week is a long time in politics.
