Starmer resigns as prime minister as Streeting backs Burnham for leadership - UK politics live
NEWS | 22 June 2026
From 3h ago 06.21 EDT Streeting says he won't challenge for leadership, suggesting Burnham on course to become PM without contest Wes Streeting has posted this on social media. He confirms that he won’t stand as a candidate for the Labour leadership. He says that he a contest where candidates spent the summer “exaggerating small differences” would not be good for the party or the country, and he says that, having spoken to Burnham, he is confident that that there is “a place” for the policies he has been advocating under a Burnham premiership. This means it is now very, very likely that Burnham will be PM be mid July. It is conceivable that another candidate may come forward. But, apart from Streeting, no one else has publicly signalled an intention to stand, and with Burnham now a shoo-in, it is hard to imagine any other MP getting the support they would need to be a candidate. Streeting's statement Photograph: Wes Streeting Share Updated at 06.22 EDT 1m ago 08.57 EDT Burnham brushes aside question about his call for general election when Boris Johnson replaced as PM in 2022 Andy Burnham has been speaking to reporters on the platform at Euston. He said he had made his statement earlier praising the PM’s dedication and service, and confirming that he would be a candidate. When it was put to him that he called for an immediate general election when Rishi Sunak took over as PM, Burnham said: “I think you’re talking several hurdles ahead there.” He said it had been sad to leave Greater Manchester. The people had been brilliant to him, he said, and he loved every minute of it. “I hope I leave Manchester in a better place.” The reporter was referring to this tweet from Burnham posted during the 2022 Tory leadership contest. double quotation mark We need to start demanding a General Election at the end of this Tory leadership election. They were all elected on a manifesto promise to level up the North and are all abandoning it. At the time, when someone responded to Burnham saying Labour did not call an election when Tony Blair was replaced by Gordon Brown, Burnham replied: double quotation mark No, but then we didn’t have a major change of political direction nor ditch the core mission on which we were elected - as the Tories are poised to do with levelling up. View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham speaking to reporters at Euston Photograph: BBC Share 15m ago 08.43 EDT Ben Riley-Smith from the Telegraph says the lack of cabinet support for Keir Starmer was evident from how few ministers were in No 10 to hear his resignation speech this morning. (See 12pm.) double quotation mark If you want to understand why Starmer resigned glancing left during his speech at the group of supporters gathered explains the reason. There were less than half a dozen cabinet ministers visible and present for their boss’s resignation - David Lammy, David Jones, Jenny Chapman, Richard Hermer, (possibly Steve Reed too, his aides were there.) That is just a fraction of the 27 ministers who sit round his Cabinet table. Starmer had lost support from too many around his cabinet (and the wider parliamentary party) to carry on. Anna Turley, the Labour chair, thinks Riley-Smith is being unfair. She posted this in response. double quotation mark Hi there Ben you don’t seem to recognise that MPs live in constituencies and travel in on Monday mornings. I had to watch this speech on a train with bad wifi. Share 21m ago 08.37 EDT Andy Burnham’s train has arrived at Euston, according to the BBC. The new MP for Makerfield is letting all the other passengers off the train first before he alights to meet all the journalists waiting for him. Share 24m ago 08.35 EDT This is from Gordon Brown, the last Labour PM, on Keir Starmer. double quotation mark Keir Starmer’s place in history is assured. We owe Keir a debt of gratitude for taking Labour from its worst electoral defeat in 2019, bringing Labour back into government with a huge majority in 2024 and then guiding Britain through difficult times nationally and globally. Share 25m ago 08.33 EDT Andy Burnham’s train from Manchester to London is running late, but due to arrive shortly. It is being followed by a Sky News helicopter. View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham's train Photograph: Sky News Share 32m ago 08.27 EDT Starmer wrong to claim credit in resignation speech for ending austerity, says NEU teachers' union leader Sally Weale Sally Weale is the Guardian’s education correspondent. The leader of the country’s biggest teaching union has criticised Keir Starmer for suggesting that his government has ended austerity. Commenting on Starmer’s resignation speech (see 9.59am), Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: double quotation mark Keir Starmer was wrong to claim credit today for ending austerity. Part of the reason why his government is so deeply unpopular is that they have failed to fix the funding crisis in schools, which risks condemning another generation of children to bear the brunt of austerity-level school budgets. NEU polling this weekend showed only 5% of members think the Labour government has performed well on education over the last two years. Starmer’s resignation has also triggered fears about possible delays to the government’s planned education reforms for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), which has been a priority for Starmer’s administration, though the proposals remain controversial. Jane Harris, chief executive of Speech and Language UK, said: double quotation mark Today’s political uncertainty must not be allowed to delay the urgent reform children with Send have been promised. Too many children with speech and language challenges are already waiting too long for support, being misunderstood in classrooms or missing out on the help they need to learn, make friends and thrive. Share 46m ago 08.12 EDT The agenda for the day posted earlier (see 7.11am) turned out to be a bit duff. Downing Street cancelled the regular lobby briefing, and we have now been told that Keir Starmer will not, as expected, be making a Commons statement about the G7. Instead it will be made by David Lammy, the deputy PM, (who wasn’t at the summit). After that there will be two more ministerial statements: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, on the Bedford train crash, and James Murray, the health secretary, on the Pathways clinical trial, which is investigating the efficacy of puberty-suppressing drugs with trans children. Share 53m ago 08.06 EDT And here is a video of Londoners reacting to the news that Keir Starmer is resigning. 1:30 'British PMs don't last very long': Londoners react to Starmer's resignation – video Share 1h ago 08.00 EDT Will Starmer stay on as MP for Holborn and St Pancras? A reader asks: double quotation mark Question for Andrew (or anyone who knows): Will Starmer be staying on in the HoC as the MP for Holborn & St Pancras, or is he stepping back from that position too? If the latter, how soon would there be a by-election? Keir Starmer has given no indication that he intends to stand down as an MP. When Tony Blair resigned after he stood down as PM, he quit parliament immediately. David Cameron said that he would stay on when he resigned, but he quickly changed his mind, particularly when it became clear Theresa May was going to pursue policies he could not support (she wanted to lift the ban on new grammar schools). Boris Johnson resigned as an MP too, but that was a few months after he left No 10, and because the privileges committee was about to publish a report saying he lied to MPs over Partygate. Starmer would probably find it as awkward sitting on the back benches listening to Andy Burnham take PMQs as Blair would have done listening to Gordon Brown. Starmer is not going to be sanctioned by the privileges committee, but like Cameron he may also not want be in a position where he is expected to vote for policies championed by his successor that he does not support. For Starmer, the idea of moving on may appeal. But there is a big difference; Blair and Cameron could both leave parliament safe in the knowledge that their party would hold the seat in the forthcoming byelection. Johnson couldn’t, but he probably didn’t care. At the last election Starmer had a majority of 11,572. At the 2019 election his majority was more than 27,000. An independent candidate campaigning largely on Gaza came second in the seat in 2024 and Electoral Calculus has the Green party currently on course to win Holborn and St Pancras under its modelling. For Starmer to trigger a byelection in those circumstances would be deeply hostile act towards his successor. Having spoken about the need for an “orderly handover of power” in his speech today (see 9.43am), it is hard to see why he would be minded to sabotage Burnham in this way. That does not mean, if Starmer remains an MP, he will have to be in the Commons every night. Party whips tend to be quite accommodating towards former prime ministers and, if he finds other duties that take him away from parliament, he is not likely to get into trouble for missing votes. Share 2h ago 07.19 EDT The PM normally does a session with the liaison committee before the start of the summer recess. The veteran broadcaster Michael Crick has a good proposal. double quotation mark If it is a “coronation” the for scrutiny purposes, Andy Burnham should volunteer to be grilled very soon and at length by the Commons Liaison Committee which comprises all the select committee chairs. Share
Author: Andrew Sparrow.
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