The waiting country

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation this week—the sixth to exit in ten years.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Who’s in the running to replace him, and what can the next leader do to steady the premiership?

WORLD’s Mary Reichard has the story.

MARY REICHARD: Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the press outside number 10 Downing Street on Monday.

STARMER: Walking up this street two years ago was the proudest moment of my life: a new Labour government, the first in 14 years.

He touted economic and welfare policies his liberal majority achieved, but then admitted it was time for a change.

STARMER: The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election.

That answer was “No.”

DUERR: A lot of labor leaders look at him and say there's no clear vision that he's not fixing the issues of the economy or immigration.

Glen Duerr was born in the UK and now teaches International Studies at Cedarville University in Ohio.

He says the issues that rocked Starmer’s term date back ten years, to the Brexit referendum of 2016.

DUERR: Roughly 550 out of the 650 parliamentarians at the time opposed Brexit. The people voted differently, some 51.9% voted in favor of Brexit, and ultimately it took until January of 2020 to leave the European Union.

Prime Minister David Cameron resigned soon after that vote.

CAMERON: I was absolutely clear about my belief that Britain is stronger safer and better off inside the European Union but the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path.

That started a trend of Prime Ministers with short tenures. Theresa May in 2019:

MAY: I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort.

Boris Johnson in 2022:

JOHNSON: It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.

Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, made strong attempts to lower taxes and boost growth, but resigned after just 45 days.

TRUSS: I recognize though given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the conservative party.

Conservative Rishi Sunak spent two years working to fix the economy and illegal immigration. But in 2024, British voters booted Conservatives from power by electing a Labour majority to the House of Commons. Here’s Sunak.

SUNAK: I have given this job my all but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change and yours is the only judgment that matters.

Now Starmer’s resignation kicks off Labour party elections for a new leader to replace him by September.

Duerr suspects that in addition to a failure of economic and immigration policy, Starmer stumbled on the foreign policy front, favoring relationships with center and leftist leaders over conservatives.

DUERR: His relationship, for example, with President Trump was really quite good from 2024 into 2025, but it really soured to the point where the United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary, King Charles came over. It wasn't Keir Starmer.

Duerr says the front-runner among several potential Labour party candidates is a Member of Parliament from Manchester: Andy Burnham.

DUERR: He recently won a by-election in Makerfield in the northwest of England, and he was the sitting mayor of Greater Manchester. He also held some cabinet positions, and so he is very experienced, and a lot of Labour leaders like him, they think he will have a clearer vision.

Nominations for Starmer’s replacement will open on July 9th. Whoever wins will need to convince British voters to keep him or her in power after the next General Election, which the law requires to take place by 2029.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Reichard.

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