{"id":673470,"date":"2026-07-04T13:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673470\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:41:08","slug":"labour-should-win-next-election-under-burnham-after-work-already-done-starmer-says-keir-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673470\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour should win next election under Burnham after work already done, Starmer says | Keir Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Keir Starmer has said Labour \u201cshould go on to win the next election\u201d under his likely successor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/andyburnham\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Burnham<\/a>, based on what the prime minister had already achieved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In his first interview since he announced he would stand down, Starmer also said he held no \u201cpersonal animosity\u201d toward Burnham, who is expected to succeed him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Speaking to the BBC, the prime minister was asked what he thought his achievements were as prime minister and leader of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/labour\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Labour<\/a> party. He pointed to the 2024 general election victory, addressing child poverty, improving NHS waiting lists and said his government had \u201cstabilised the economy\u201d over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The prime minister also emphasised his legacy as turning around the Labour party after its 2019 defeat, tackling antisemitism and restoring public trust in areas such as defence and immigration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Starmer added: \u201cMy successor will have a platform to build on, which means that Labour can go on and should go on to win the next election. And that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to make sure I\u2019m able to do over the next few days to serve my country and to make sure that I bow out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s the end of my journey in politics. I\u2019m very clear about that. I\u2019ve said to all my colleagues it\u2019s not the end of their journey. And it\u2019s very important that we all do what we can to make sure what comes next is a success. And that\u2019s what I will do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">When asked if he liked Burnham, the prime minister poked fun at the former mayor of Greater Manchester\u2019s support of Everton: \u201cYes, I do. We\u2019ve always got on. He supports the wrong football club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe get on, I\u2019ve never had any personal animosity, and if he is my successor, obviously there\u2019s a little bit of process to go. But I want what comes next to succeed and I\u2019m going to do everything I possibly can to make sure it does succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAnd I\u2019m going to support the government. And what I mean by support is that any advice I give will be only given if asked for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Throughout his premiership, the Labour leader has faced accusations of spending too much time on the world stage instead of domestic affairs, with his opponents calling him \u201cnever here Keir\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Burnham has largely focused on domestic considerations as he sets out his stall to be the next prime minister. Starmer, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/jul\/03\/starmer-warns-burnham-he-cannot-spend-less-time-on-diplomacy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">warned that the future prime minister<\/a> would not be able to spend less time grappling with the turmoil around the world than he has.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">He said: \u201cI don\u2019t think it is possible. So this suggestion you can really, in the modern era, simply split up the international and domestic, is just \u2026 it just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt isn\u2019t true. It isn\u2019t right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The prime minister said he planned to stay on as a member of parliament until the next election and sought to dispel rumours that he planned to stand as Nato\u2019s next secretary general.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Asked if he knew what would come next, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t know, is the honest answer. The decision I\u2019ve taken is that I should focus 100% on serving my country as prime minister until the day I leave, and then I can take time to think about what might come next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Starmer also said his decision to resign was \u201cintensely personal\u201d, and came after spending a weekend with his family at Chequers, the grace-and-favour Buckinghamshire country estate available to all prime ministers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has said Labour \u201cshould go on to win the next election\u201d under his likely successor, Andy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-673470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673470","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=673470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}