Sir Keir Starmer announced outside Downing Street on Monday that he will resign as Prime Minister and Labour leader, ending a premiership that began with a landslide in July 2024 and unravelled in under two years amid open revolt in his own party. He will remain as caretaker Prime Minister until Labour chooses a successor; nominations open on 9 July, with a new leader due before Parliament returns in September. Andy Burnham — the former Greater Manchester mayor who returned to the Commons with 54.8% in last week’s Makerfield by-election — is widely seen as the favourite to replace him.

Months of disintegration

The resignation caps months of disintegration. By mid-May, more than 95 Labour MPs had publicly urged him to go or name a date. His personal ratings had sunk to among the worst recorded for any modern Prime Minister — a net approval of around minus 34 in recent Opinium polling, with 55% of voters saying he should resign. Labour was battered in the 2025 and 2026 local and by-elections as Reform UK and the Greens surged. A run of resignations had already drained his authority: the two most senior defence officials walked out on 11 June over what they called inadequate funding for the Defence Investment Plan, and former Health Secretary Wes Streeting had quit in May, saying it was clear Sir Keir would not lead Labour into the next election.

The grooming-gangs inquiry

For many, the anger ran deeper than any single policy. Among the most damaging episodes of his premiership was the government’s handling of demands for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. In January 2025, Labour MPs voted 364 to 111 against a Conservative amendment calling for a national statutory inquiry, and ministers resisted one for months — a stance critics across the political spectrum condemned as a betrayal of victims. The government reversed course on 14 June 2025, after Baroness Louise Casey’s national audit recommended a full statutory inquiry. That inquiry — chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield, with a budget of £65 million — was established later in 2025, and the National Crime Agency’s Operation Beaconport has since flagged more than 1,200 closed cases for possible reinvestigation, over 200 of them high-priority rape cases. Opponents said the U-turn only confirmed that the inquiry had been dragged out of a reluctant government.

A contested prosecutorial record

Sir Keir’s record on child sexual abuse, dating to his time as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, was a recurring line of attack against him. Critics pointed to early CPS failures on his watch, including the initial decision not to charge a group of men later jailed over the Rochdale scandal. His allies countered that the same tenure saw him rewrite CPS guidance in 2013 to dismantle the “myths and stereotypes” that had silenced victims, reopen closed cases and bring the first prosecution of an Asian grooming gang, with child sexual abuse prosecutions reaching record levels by the time he left office. It remained one of the most bitterly contested parts of his public record.

‘Two-tier policing’

Critics also accused him — an allegation firmly denied by the government — of presiding over “two-tier policing,” a charge pressed by Reform UK and others who argued enforcement had become uneven. Ministers rejected the label, but it became one of the sharpest slogans deployed against him.

What it means for Kent

In Kent, the disillusionment that forced him out has been visible for more than a year. Reform UK seized control of Kent County Council in May 2025 and has since driven the largest local government reorganisation in half a century — a process this newspaper has examined closely, and one residents and campaigners have challenged over questions of lawful authority and democratic accountability. Labour’s standing across the county has fallen sharply since 2024. A change at the top of government — and what many at Westminster expect to be intensifying pressure for an early general election — arrives in a county whose politics have already turned decisively against the party now picking its next leader.

What happens next

What follows is uncertain. Sir Keir stays on as caretaker. Should Andy Burnham become leader and Prime Minister, as expected, he inherits a party behind in the polls, a restless backbench and growing demands — from opponents and many voters — that the country, not just Labour MPs, should decide who governs at a general election.

In his statement outside Downing Street, Sir Keir defended his record in office and said he would ensure an orderly transfer of power, staying on as caretaker until his successor is chosen.

Sources

  • House of Commons vote on a national grooming-gangs inquiry (January 2025) and the Government’s announcement of a statutory inquiry (14 June 2025) — House of Commons Library; GOV.UK.
  • Baroness Casey, National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (June 2025); National Crime Agency, Operation Beaconport.
  • Keir Starmer’s record as Director of Public Prosecutions (2008–2013) — Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
  • Approval and favourability polling, 2025–2026 — Opinium; YouGov.
  • Resignation statement, Downing Street, 22 June 2026; Makerfield by-election result, 18 June 2026.