Decision to resign intensely personal: UK PM Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer has spoken of his decision to resign as Labour Party leader and British Prime Minister as an “intensely personal” one, which he took with his wife and children at a family weekend away.

In his first interview since his Downing Street statement that fired the starting gun for a leadership election, Starmer told the BBC on Friday evening that he would complete his current term as a central London member of Parliament.

But, while on the backbenches of Parliament, the 63-year-old politician plans on “keeping his mouth shut” to allow his successor - widely expected to be former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham — to get on with the job.

“I grappled with what was the best thing to do for me, for the country, for the government,” said Starmer. “In the end it became an intensely personal decision. And that’s why it was a decision taken ultimately when (my wife) Vic and I were away with the kids,” he said.

The weekend before June 22, when he announced his resignation on the steps of 10 Downing Street in London, the Starmer family was at Chequers - the UK PM’s countryside retreat in Buckinghamshire.

“We just spent two days together as a family and that’s when I came to my final decision... Taking the decision that your political career is over, it is an intensely personal matter, or at least it was for me,” he shared.

In the interview, which marks exactly two years since he won Labour a landslide general election victory, Starmer cautioned his successor that they would be faced with similar global challenges that he had been consumed by during his truncated tenure as PM.

“Whoever is my successor, is going to face the same global conflict. We keep saying, and it’s true, we’re in a more dangerous and volatile world than we’ve been in for probably most of my lifetime. That’s not just a phrase, that’s reality. “That’s not going to change. And the domestic challenges aren’t going to change,” he said.

Despite being shunted out of office by what was effectively an internal coup, Starmer insisted he “never had any personal animosity” towards Andy Burnham and would “do everything I possibly can to make sure” that the next government succeeds.

“(I will be) keeping my mouth shut, rather than giving constant advice to my successor about what they should be doing,” he stated.

The caretaker PM also highlighted that his four years as Labour leader in Opposition prior to winning the July 2024 general election were “absolutely core” to his legacy. “The Labour Party arguably could have been lost, but I stepped up as leader and with others we saved the Labour Party,” he asserted, admitting that he had been ousted because his party MPs no longer believed he was “the right person to take us into the next election.”

After an initial phase of popularity, Starmer was hit by some controversial decision-making and policy U-turns, which intensified an internal rebellion within the Labour Party ranks as MPs demanded tougher action on the country’s cost-of-living crisis.

Burnham has so far emerged as the only candidate for the top job, which could see him elected unopposed once the process formally closes on July 16.