UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expected to resign as soon as next week
The reports come amid a surge in popularity for a recently elected MP who threatened the prime ministership.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to resign as soon as Monday.
British newspaper The Observer has reported that Sir Keir would quit after concluding that his position was no longer tenable.
The threat to Sir Keir’s position, which has been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when his rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament that would allow him to launch a formal leadership challenge.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Mr Burnham said his stunning election win was a turning point and final chance to change the UK government.
Sir Keir is expected to issue a statement on his future in the coming days and set out a timetable for his departure from 10 Dowling Street.
A Labour peer told The Observer that the Prime Minister would “arrange a deliberate slow march in good order, as a matter of duty and dignity”.
“I think he sees the realities. Stopping ‘chaos’ (as he rightly put it) is now not possible by staying, so that only leaves one option. I think he has come to see it as the dutiful option to serve the country and the party,” they said.
The British leader said on Friday he would fight any challenge to his position and urged Labour not to tear itself apart with infighting.
More than 100 MPs in his party - roughly a quarter of all Labour representatives in the House of Commons - have publicly said they want Sir Keir to quit or set out a timetable for his departure.
Sir Keir led the centre-left Labour party to a landslide election win in 2024 but has become deeply unpopular after a series of scandals and policy U-turns that have given many voters an overall impression that he cannot deliver the improvement to their standards of living that he promised.
If he were to quit or be ousted, it would mean the country installing its seventh Prime Minister in just over a decade - the highest turnover in nearly two centuries, reflective of anger at successive governments’ failures to improve public services and tackle issues like illegal immigration.
With Reuters.
