Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday (June 22, 2026) morning, just under two years after leading Labour in a landslide victory in July 2024.
This happened despite the fact that the U.K. saw some of its important economic parameters improving in the last two years.
It had the strongest economic growth in Q1 2026 relative to its G7 peers and inflation had been falling to the Bank of England’s target level of 2%, for instance.
The waitlists for medical appointments in the U.K.’s universal healthcare system had also fallen.
However, the above was not enough to keep Mr. Starmer in No.
Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday (June 22, 2026) morning, just under two years after leading Labour in a landslide victory in July 2024. This happened despite the fact that the U.K. saw some of its important economic parameters improving in the last two years. It had the strongest economic growth in Q1 2026 relative to its G7 peers and inflation had been falling to the Bank of England’s target level of 2%, for instance. The waitlists for medical appointments in the U.K.’s universal healthcare system had also fallen. Net immigration numbers — a hot button — had also declined, though some of this could reasonably be attributed to policies of the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak.
However, the above was not enough to keep Mr. Starmer in No. 10 Downing Street until the end of this Parliament. His popularity within the Labour Party, his historically low performance in opinion polls, poor judgement calls in political appointments, recent electoral losses for Labour and fears around the growth in Reform and other hard right parties were among the reasons he was compelled to resign. His political fate was all but sealed when Labour’s ‘King of the North’, former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham won a seat in Westminster (the U.K.’s Parliament) last week, after winning a bye-election.
