British PM Starmer announced his resignation

British prime minister Kier Starmer announced his resignation outside the iconic front door of No. 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon. It is widely expected that newly elected member of parliament Andy Burnham will succeed Starmer as the leader of the Labour Party which means he would become the seventh premier in 10 years for Britain.

The outgoing prime minister stated that he will go with grace as he will ask the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee to open its nomination for a new leader on July 9th and that it will be completed by the summer recess; which is a week later on July 16th. This means that there will be a new PM by the time the legislature returns from its summer session, September 1st, which means his tenure at No. 10 will be a little longer than two years.

Former Health and Social Care secretary Wes Streeting has signaled his support for Burnham and it seems likely that the Labour leadership contest will be more of a coranation than a contested intraparty election.

With his resignation, Starmer has become the sixth PM that failed to finish a term in the last decade. Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May all failed to finish the first term that they were elected to; Dave Cameron failed to finish his second term after he stepped down in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. There had been hope that Starmer would bring not just change, but stability after 14 years of failed Conservative leadership; but the Labour politician squashed that hope early in his tenure.

Starmer’s premiership has been noted for his inability to stay the course on any policy proposal that his government put forward. Some examples include when he back downed on his wildly unpopular Digital ID plan, to his decision to ignore his election manifesto’s on worker protections, and his crackdown on pro-Palestinian protest that have resulted in violent arrest across the country. This inconsistent messaging has completely destroyed not just his, but his party’s, credibility with the electorate.

The defections in his own cabinet has accelerated in the aftermath of the beat down Labour took in the May local elections. It was as crisis that he initially vowed to fight on through; but it had become clear that he wouldn’t survive because Burnham cruised through the Makerfield by-election.