Keir Starmer Resigns as Prime Minister and Labour Leader

Keir Starmer announced his resignation as Labour leader and Prime Minister on the morning of 22 June 2026, telling MPs 'I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.' The resignation followed a sustained leadership crisis triggered by Labour's disastrous May 2026 local elections — in which the party lost roughly 1,496 council seats as Reform UK surged — and was precipitated by Andy Burnham's decisive by-election win in Makerfield four days earlier, which removed the last practical barrier to a leadership challenge. Starmer's departure makes him the shortest-serving Labour Prime Minister to leave office other than through electoral defeat, and sets up Britain's seventh Prime Minister in a decade. Burnham confirmed within hours that he would stand to succeed him.