Pressure builds on Starmer to resign

policy

Expectations are growing that he will announce a timetable for his resignation on Monday.

By Jill Lawless, Associated Press

Updated on June 21, 2026 | 4:13 pm

3 minutes to read

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a career-defining decision: step down or fight off a potential challenge from his Labor rival Andy Burnham.

Starmer has publicly pledged to remain in office, but pressure is mounting as more and more of his Labor colleagues believe his time is up. Expectations are growing that he will announce a timetable for his resignation on Monday. This is the day Burnham will be sworn in as a lawmaker in the House of Commons after winning a special election last week.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said on Sunday that Starmer was “taking time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities in which he finds himself”.

Kyle told the BBC: “I know he is a prime minister who always puts his country first,” but said reports that Starmer would resign were just “speculation.”

Starmer is spending the weekend at Checkers, the country mansion used by prime ministers, with his family. He did not give any public hint about his decision, but did send out a Father’s Day message on social media.

“Being a father is my greatest joy. Today, I think of my father, and father my children because of him,” he wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump made his views even before the announcement, linking Starmer’s potential exit to two of his recurring concerns: immigration and renewable energy.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social website: “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He has failed miserably on two very important issues: immigration and energy (open North Sea oil!). I wish him well! President D.G.T.”

It was not clear whether Trump was responding to media reports about Starmer’s plans. The two leaders did not speak over the weekend.

Starmer’s initially warm relationship with the president has soured in recent months over issues including the Iran war, which the UK has not joined.

If Starmer resigns, he will be the sixth prime minister to leave office in the past ten years, an unusual rate for the United Kingdom.

Discontent with the Prime Minister has been simmering for months, with Labor lawmakers desperate to reverse the government’s decline in popularity since Starmer led the centre-left party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, reform tattered public services, and ease the cost of living, and has been stymied by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, Jeffrey Epstein’s scandal-tainted friend, as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

Labor is losing Liberal voters to a growing Green Party and is facing a rising UK Reform Party, the anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage that is consistently ahead in national opinion polls.

Burnham, who until this week was the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England in a special election on Thursday. He received nearly 55% of the total 45,510 votes, 9,000 more votes than the runner-up Reform UK party.

Now that Burnham is an MP, he is in a position to challenge Starmer for the Labor leadership. Burnham’s acceptance speech left no doubt about his desire to lead the party and the country.

“Everyone knows that politics doesn’t work,” he said. “Everyone can feel that the country is not where it should be. Tonight could be the turning point.”

It is unclear whether Burnham would face the coronation or the challenge if Starmer steps aside. Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month in protest against Starmer’s leadership, said he would run in any contest if there was one.

Starmer congratulated Burnham on Friday, but insisted he would resist any attempt to oust him.

Starmer said: “I will stand, I will stand” if there is a contest for the Labor leadership. “I’ve said over and over again that I won’t give up on it.”

But Charlie Falconer, a senior Labor member in the House of Lords, said on Saturday that Starmer had “no power whatsoever”.

He told the BBC: “There has to be an agreed transition process in which Andy and Kerr collaborate on a handover date.”