{"id":750086,"date":"2026-06-21T03:55:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750086\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T03:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:55:19","slug":"uk-prime-minister-keir-starmer-expected-to-step-down-after-labour-rival-andy-burnham-wins-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750086\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expected to step down after Labour rival Andy Burnham wins by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been rumoured to be announcing his resignation as his support within the UK Labour Party collapses.<\/p>\n

The Observer has reported senior Labour figures expected a clear statement on Mr Starmer\u2019s future as early as Monday.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph<\/a> said allies believed Mr Starmer had concluded \u201cthe game is up\u201d and was now considering how to \u201cshore up his legacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Sky News Sunday Agenda that another change of leadership in Britain would not be a good idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say that the history of just changing leaders is not a positive one. I’ve dealt with already four British prime ministers since I’ve been elected as prime minister,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he would urge stability, Mr Albanese replied: \u201cI think stability is a good thing \u2026 There\u2019s been a lot of chaos has occurred in global politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u2018A<\/p>\n

Pressure on Mr Starmer intensified after Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham won the Makerfield byelection on Friday, setting him up to challenge Mr Starmer.<\/p>\n

The Observer reported Mr Starmer was discussing his future with his wife at his Chequers country residence after consulting cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n

Government sources quoted by The Telegraph said there had been \u201cquite a bit of movement\u201d among cabinet ministers following Mr Burnham\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Another source warned that if Mr Starmer refused to resign \u201cwe could end up in mass resignation territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, another government source said Mr Starmer remained focused on his job and pointed to previous statements he has made to that effect.<\/p>\n

The British leader said on Friday he would fight any challenge to his leadership and urged Labour not to tear itself apart with infighting.<\/p>\n

Mr Starmer\u00a0led the centre-left Labour party to a landslide election win in 2024 but has become\u00a0deeply unpopular after a series of scandals and policy U-turns.<\/p>\n

If he were to quit or be ousted, it would mean the country installing its seventh prime minister in just over a decade.<\/p>\n

This marks the highest turnover in nearly two centuries, reflective of anger at successive governments’ failures to improve public services or illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

More than 100 elected lawmakers in Mr Starmer’s party have publicly said they want him to quit or set out a timetable for his exit, according to a Reuters tally.<\/p>\n

Mr Burnham, a 56-year-old career politician, has been seen as the most likely successor to Mr Starmer, either through a negotiated transfer of power\u00a0or a formal leadership contest.<\/p>\n

Sky News \/ Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been rumoured to be announcing his resignation as his support within the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[323762,43,5312,360173,44,297850,41,39,42,40,21173,360172],"class_list":["post-750086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-andy-burnham","tag-headlines","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-leader","tag-news","tag-prime-minister-keir-starmer","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-politics","tag-ukpol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}