UK’s Starmer resigns as prime minister
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resigned in a televised statement after coming under mounting pressure from his own Labour Party.
It follows the decisive by-election win by his rival, Andy Burnham, to claim a parliamentary seat in North West England.
Burnham takes a selfie with Labour MPs
Following his swearing in as a member of parliament, Andy Burnham took a selfie with Labour MPs.
It’s looking increasingly probable he will become the next prime minister without a contest.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese says Starmer ‘can be proud’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he considers Starmer a friend and is “thinking of him on what must be a very tough day”.
“When the time comes for Keir to leave Downing Street, he can be proud of the contribution he has made to the country he loves and to the Labour Party that he led back to Government in 2024,” Albanese posted on X.
“I’m grateful for the opportunities we had to work together to strengthen our AUKUS defence and security partnership, support the brave people of Ukraine and keep children safe from the damage that social media can do.”
Macron sends thanks to Starmer
“I would like to thank Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his contribution to strengthening the Franco-British relationship, his commitment within the coalition of the willing for Ukraine, as well as to relaunching the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” French President Emmanuel Macron has posted on X.
“The work accomplished together on defence, nuclear energy, space and innovation, particularly during our Franco-British summit last July, testifies to this commitment. We will continue along this path for the benefit of our peoples and of Europe.”
Burnham will face several challenges as prime minister
The main issue is that whatever Andy Burnham is promising, there is a fiscal reality here. The UK has been dealing with a sluggish economy and job market, as well as $3.7 trillion of debt on top of that. He’s going to have these conditions to deal with.
One of the key things that he will likely do is try to devolve power. It’s something that he really believes in, devolving power to different local areas of the UK, so that local areas can put the money where it’s needed.
He’s had great success with the transport network in Manchester and putting that back into public control from private control, and we know that he’s likely to look at the energy sector, the water sector.
But there is also criticism about that, that it’ll be an expensive pipe dream, and that you can’t necessarily just take what’s in Manchester – Manchesterism, as they call it – and apply that to the rest of the nation. So that will also be a big issue for him.
‘A very dramatic day here at Number 10’
It has been “a very dramatic day here at Number 10”, said Al Jazeera’s Charlie Angela, reporting from outside Starmer’s official residence in Downing Street.
“Just last week he was vowing that he would fight any kind of contest, but it seems that the political pressure just got too much,” she said.
“He has lost the backing of his party after months of poor polling, local election losses, criticism over policy reversals and ultimately a failure to connect with the people. It seems that he was told, and obviously accepted, that fighting on would be fruitless,” Angela said.
“There was quite an emotional moment as well in his speech, for a man who’s often been criticised as being quite stiff and quite wooden. His voice was almost breaking when he thanked his wife and his children.”
Noting that Starmer came into politics relatively late in life, and was in his 50s when he became an MP, Angela said: “It is a spectacular rise and fall for him.”
