How Starmer went from Labour Party hero to calling it quits within 2 years
2026-06-23T04:01:39Z
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won his job after leading his party to a massive victory in 2024. Less than two years later, he resigned as his party rebelled in the wake of widespread losses in local elections.
Starmer’s popularity plunged amid a struggling economy, a series of policy missteps, one particularly poor appointment and a perceived lack of vision.
The combination of challenges led to a thrashing for his Labour Party in local elections this spring and calls to step down that cleared a path for a would-be challenger to step forward and ultimately force him aside Monday.
This is a look at how his short-lived premiership unraveled.
Victory put Labour Party in power after 14 years of Conservative rule
Starmer’s coronation on July 4, 2024 ushered in an optimism for Labour as it captured 411 of 650 seats in Parliament and drove out the Conservative Party after 14 years of rule. It was a massive turnaround from historic losses in the previous election.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Starmer would never be forgotten for leading the “party from the brink, back to power.”
In his victory speech, Starmer spoke of national renewal and change that would restore government to support “working people.”
“And now we can look forward,” he said. “Walk into the morning, the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day, shining once again, on a country with the opportunity after 14 years to get its future back.”
It didn’t take long for storm clouds to appear.
Starmer inherited a lagging economy and had to reverse unpopular changes
With Britain’s public finances battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the repercussions of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine, his government didn’t exactly have much room for big giveaways.
Voters struggling to pay their bills had tossed out the Tories, but initial efforts by Labour to turn the economy around failed to bring major change.
If anything, Starmer and his Treasury chief, Rachel Reeves, made things worse by being overly pessimistic about their inheritance. Their downbeat comments weighed on confidence and prompted businesses and consumers to further retrench.
Their initial policy actions didn’t help either.
Labour’s election manifesto specifically ruled out increases in the major revenue earners of income tax and sales tax. Needing to plug a hole in the public finances, they opted to increase a tax that businesses pay on their staff.
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That proved unpopular and many companies opted to cut back on hiring.
Several other policy changes led to blowback from the public and Starmer was forced to make a series of embarrassing U-turns that provided political capital for opponents and fed beliefs that the prime minister didn’t stand for much.
The government dropped a plan to end winter home heating subsidies for millions of retirees, reversed itself on tough plans to cut welfare spending and eased a new agricultural inheritance tax after angry farmers protested and clogged the streets of London with tractors.
Outside of the economy, there were further flip flops, not least in Starmer’s decision to launch a national inquiry into organized child sexual abuse after pressure from opposition politicians — and Elon Musk.
Appointment of Jeffrey Epstein pal as US
ambassador backfired
Starmer’s decision to appoint controversial Labour member Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador — despite knowing he had been friends with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — backfired badly.
Initially, the decision to send a man dubbed “Prince of Darkness” for his ruthless spin doctoring seemed like a genius stroke in winning over the unpredictable U.S. President Donald Trump. Mandelson’s trade experience and ease schmoozing with billionaires helped secure a U.S. trade deal with favorably lower tariffs for Britain than many other countries.
But when revelations emerged in September 2025 that Mandelson had been much closer to the late financier Epstein than he had led on, Starmer fired him.
The appointment, though, has repeatedly haunted Starmer.
Starmer’s judgment was further questioned when internal government files showed Mandelson was named to the post despite being labeled a “reputational risk.” Additional developments showed Mandelson failed a security background check before his appointment and was being investigated on allegations he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a Cabinet minister more than 15 years ago.
Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing.
Rivals emerged as Labour took battering at polls
Starmer’s popularity was in the tank when center-left Labour took a disastrous beating in local government elections last month and set in motion political maneuvering that ultimately led to his demise some six weeks later.
More than 100 Labour members of Parliament called for Starmer to step down after Reform UK, a relatively new anti-immigration and hard-right party, won the largest number of local seats and the rising Green Party siphoned voters from the left.
Several government ministers, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, quit in protest, fueling speculation he would challenge his former boss.
A member of Parliament stepped down to make way for Andy Burnham, the popular Mayor of Greater Manchester, to return to London and take on Starmer.
With Burnham’s victory last week, Starmer holed up in the prime minister’s country estate over the weekend to consider his options as some party insiders urged him to set a timetable for his resignation.
An emotional Starmer announced on Monday morning that he would resign. Burnham was sworn in later in the day in the House of Commons, where he received a hero’s welcome.
It remains to be seen if anyone other than Burnham steps forward when Labour’s national executive committee open nominations July 9 to replace Starmer.
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Associated Press Writer Pan Pylas contributed to this report.
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