U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned on Monday, paving the way for Britain to have its seventh prime minister in just over a decade.
Andy Burnham, who won a special parliamentary election last week, is the front-runner to replace Starmer as leader of the governing center-left Labour Party. Starmer won a landslide victory at a general election in 2024, but a series of missteps badly damaged his
credibility.
He’ll remain in the prime ministerial residence at 10 Downing Street until party members vote on a new leader in the next few weeks. Starmer made the announcement after facing growing pressure to hand over to a new leader who can try and revive the government’s flagging fortunes.
He has been in office since leading Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. In those two years his popularity and that of the party have plummeted.