{"id":546564,"date":"2026-06-21T10:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/546564\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:31:11","slug":"keir-starmer-expected-to-announce-departure-as-british-prime-minister-on-monday-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/546564\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer expected to announce departure as British prime minister on Monday \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer<\/a> is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as Britain\u2019s prime minister, after overwhelming pressure from Labour<\/a> MPs to make way for Andy Burnham<\/a> to become party leader.<\/p>\n

Starmer and his allies had insisted for weeks that they would fight a leadership challenge from Burnham, or anyone else, before the Makerfield byelection<\/a> in which Burnham secured a return to Westminster.<\/p>\n

But on Sunday morning, business secretary Peter Kyle told Sky News that Starmer was spending the weekend \u201cmaking time to reflect on the political realities\u201d he faces.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the government, Kyle refused to say what he thought Starmer\u2019s plans were, or what he had asked the prime minister to do.<\/p>\n

Asked if Starmer did plan to step down on Monday, Kyle said he had no reason to think this was the case. He said Starmer would be reflecting on \u201cwhat putting country first means in a moment like this\u201d.<\/p>\n

He did not push back on the idea that a change in No 10 was imminent after Burnham\u2019s big win in Thursday\u2019s byelection.<\/p>\n

Saying he had spoken at length to Starmer on Friday, Kyle said: \u201cWhat I know for a fact is that he has been engaging in conversations with a wide, wide range of people, including myself, and that he is working really hard over this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is making time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities that he finds himself in. You know, I think that is what people would expect him to be doing at this moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street denied that Starmer was planning to go, saying his position was unchanged since Friday.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Andy Burnham: How quickly could he become the UK\u2019s prime minister?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters then, Starmer had said: \u201cIf there is a contest, just to be clear with you, then, yes, I will run.\u201d He said such a contest would \u201cplunge us into chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the Greater Manchester mayor won Thursday\u2019s contest by a significant margin over Reform<\/a>, gaining a 9,000-plus majority and more than 50 per cent of the vote, Burnham\u2019s team believed they had the support of about 200 Labour MPs \u2013 roughly half the parliamentary party.<\/p>\n

That number has since increased, with Burnham becoming increasingly confident of a coronation in which he would take over as Labour leader and thus prime minister without a contest, with Starmer setting out a relatively quick timetable for departure.<\/p>\n

On Friday, ministers previously loyal to Starmer told him he should reach a decision on a timetable for his departure by the end of the weekend or face being forced out of office, with an intervention at Tuesday\u2019s cabinet meeting likely to result.<\/p>\n

Any MP who wishes to challenge to be leader needs the backing of at least 20 per cent of the parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting<\/a>, the former health secretary, who resigned last week in frustration at Starmer\u2019s leadership, has pledged to seek the top job and says he has sufficient backers, but allies of Starmer and Burnham are sceptical. His candidacy will become less likely if wavering Labour backbenchers conclude they would prefer to back a likely winner and swing behind Burnham.<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Burnham’s byelection win clears the way for a widely expected leadership challenge against beleaguered prime minister Keir Starmer. Photograph: Darren Staples\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s departure will set the UK on course for a seventh prime minister in 10 years, just two years after he led Labour to a sweeping general election victory, winning a majority of 174.<\/p>\n

But his premiership has been battered by controversies and U-turns, including over winter fuel payments to older people and the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson<\/a> as UK ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n

Labour has slumped in the polls, and Starmer himself is enormously unpopular with much of the public. Reform UK has led for more than 300 consecutive national polls, with many Labour MPs increasingly convinced that without a change of leader, Nigel Farage<\/a> will become the next prime minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as Britain\u2019s prime minister, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[37363,9,10,13,14,6,5446,20568,11,12,15,16,5,20567,42438,20566,7,8,100607,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-546564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-andy-burnham","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party-uk","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-peter-mandelson","tag-reform-uk","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wes-streeting","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116787641573189399","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}