Lucy Hough

From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hough.

Well, the moment has finally happened after so much speculation.

Keir Starmer, the lector, was out early doors this morning outside Downing Street and Keir Starmer announced his resignation, meaning we are now looking at the seventh prime minister in 10 years.

Peter Walker, you're The Guardian's senior political correspondent and you were at Downing Street early doors this morning.

We weren't sure when it was going to happen, but it did seem likely it was going to happen today.

What was the atmosphere like?

Yeah, and so what was that colour?

Because there was a lot of number 10 staffers behind him, his wife, Vic, and a kind of uncharacteristically very emotional crack of the voice at the end of his speech.

But what else did he say about his decision?

Yeah, and if there was any doubt, then we had a post from Trump on Truth Social yesterday saying that Starmer was going to resign.

Obviously, you can't rely on anything being true that Trump posts on, but it suggested perhaps he'd been speaking to people or there'd been some information from Downing Street.

One can only hope, Peter.

And as early as, oh, as recently as Friday, Keir Starmer was saying he really planned to cling on and that he would

fight in any leadership contest.

You mentioned that he was at Chequers with his wife, Vic, and various senior advisors, but also on the phone to lots of people in the parliamentary party, people who are traditionally close to him.

And it feels that those conversations made it clear to him that things were very untenable.

Yeah.

And those very carefully chosen, you know, 700 words, more or less, that you mentioned.

As part of that very short address, he gave a clear sense of the timetable that there would be a contest opening next month.

But crucially, Wes Streeting, the person who is likely to challenge Andy Burnham, has said he will support Burnham.