{"id":651149,"date":"2026-06-21T21:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/651149\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:22:14","slug":"trump-announces-uk-pms-resignation-in-extraordinary-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/651149\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump announces UK PM’s resignation in extraordinary intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"

The widely predicted announcement of struggling UK<\/a> Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s resignation has arrived from an extraordinary source.<\/p>\n

As the UK waited with bated breath on Sunday and the prime minister sweated on a career-defining decision in his countryside residence, US<\/a> President Donald Trump<\/a> just posted about it on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social saying that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would resign.\u00a0Anna Moneymaker<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,\u201d Trump announced on Truth Social on Sunday morning (just before midnight AEST), claiming he \u201cfailed badly\u201d on immigration and energy.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether Trump had inside information on the decision or was just joining the dots on a day in which multiple UK front pages quoted unnamed Starmer backers saying the prime minister was prepared to resign.<\/p>\n

Most foreign leaders abstain from commenting on or interfering with other nations\u2019 domestic politics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Trump is not most leaders but even for him the move to apparently announce the resignation of one of his strongest foreign allies was unexpected.<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is poised to challenge for the country\u2019s premiership<\/a> on his return to parliament after winning a by-election in Makerfield, north-west England<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s election was triggered to pave Burnham\u2019s route to Downing Street. It\u2019s notable that he comfortably beat his rival from Reform UK, the Nigel Farage-led anti-immigration party that consistently leads in nationwide opinion<\/a> polls.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social saying that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would resign.\u00a0Donald Trump\/Truth Social<\/p>\n

Starmer must choose whether to step aside or try to fight off the challenge from one of the country\u2019s most popular politicians.<\/p>\n

He led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024 but has tanked in the polls since then, with discontent building for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living<\/a>, and has been hamstrung by repeated missteps.<\/p>\n

The most high profile of these was his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal<\/a>-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as the UK ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n

Starmer has publicly vowed to stay in the post but pressure is building as more and more Labour Party colleagues conclude his time is up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Starmer has publicly vowed to stay in the post but pressure is building as more and more Labour Party colleagues conclude his time is up.\u00a0Peter Macdiarmid\/Pool Photo via AP<\/p>\n

Expectation is growing that he will announce a timetable for his resignation as soon as Monday, when Burnham will be sworn in as a lawmaker in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

Much like One Nation<\/a> and the Coalition in Australia<\/a>, Reform UK is tearing support away from the centre-right Conservative Party. But it appears to be eroding support for Labour at a larger scale than in Australia, while the UK\u2019s populist Greens party also threatens to rip voters away on the left.<\/p>\n

Only Burnham, his allies argued, could stem the party\u2019s electoral decline in a way that the hugely unpopular Starmer could not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The resounding manner of Burnham\u2019s win \u2013 comprehensively defeating Reform weeks after Labour was routed in local elections \u2013 gives him considerable momentum too. He took almost 55 per cent of the 45,510 votes cast, beating the Reform UK runner-up by more than 9000 votes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham pictured speaking at the launch of his Makerfield by-election campaign.\u00a0Temilade Adelaja\/Reuters via CNN<\/p>\n

Already on the weekend, some Labour MPs were repeating their calls for Starmer to step down even though Burnham himself shied away from explicitly referencing his leadership ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows that politics isn\u2019t working,\u201d Burnham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone can feel that the country isn\u2019t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said on Sunday that Starmer was \u201cmaking time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities that he finds himself in\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he is a prime minister who always puts his country first,\u201d Kyle told the BBC, though he said reports that Starmer will resign are \u201cspeculation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer is spending the weekend at Chequers, the country mansion used by British prime ministers, with his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He gave no public hint about his decision, but sent a Father\u2019s Day message on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– Reported with Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The widely predicted announcement of struggling UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s resignation has arrived from an extraordinary source.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-651149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}