Starmer resigns - is Burnham unstoppable?
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What led to Keir Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister?
This is a global production.
There is something quite sort of Shakespearean about this, isn't there?
In that speech, exactly the reason why he has been a failure as prime minister.
It now is another prime minister who has come to power by a general election, but left via a coup.
It is the world's most painful popularity contest. He never established any emotional connection with the public. He was simply a vessel to remove the Tories. Where is the power? Who are we looking at? Are we looking at you?
Are we looking at him?
Who's in control? The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace. Every decision I've taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party.
Keir Starmer becoming the 6th PM to resign from office in the last 10 years. And as he did so, he grappled with the question, staring him in the face. Why has his own party... Turned its back on him.
And turned against him viciously so that it is now almost inevitable that Andy Burnham becomes the next Prime Minister of this country. Is Andy Burnham ready? Is the country ready? Welcome to the News Agents.
MUSIC
The News Agents.
It's John. It's Maitlis. It's Lewis. It is less than two years since Keir Starmer won a landslide general election. Less than two years since he said that politics would tread less heavily on people's lives and that stability would be returning. And here we are, the lectern out again in Downing Street, Keir Starmer announcing his resignation, pushed from office. his backbenchers, his own cabinet, realising, deciding that he was not up to the job to face the populist surge from the right of reform and they wanted someone else to take over.
This used to feel special. You know, when one prime minister gave way to another, it used to feel like a moment. Of course, it still does feel like a moment. But even our pretty short history on this show, I was counting that we've done this four times now. It's the fourth prime minister we've seen appear before the electorate. This is where I say correlation, not causation. I don't think it's our fault or it's anything to do with us, to be absolutely clear. Just to be clear, the newsagents isn't yet four years old. Indeed so. So we're getting through them at a hell of a pace. And we can talk about the bigger structural things, maybe, because I think a lot of people do want to see those addressed and are wondering why it is that we're going through Primus at such a pace now.
But obviously, just for the moment, this was Keir Starmer's moment. And obviously this followed... a weekend where Starmer was holed up at Chequers with his family, with his wife, Victoria, with his remaining loyalists, having a debate, I'm told a serious debate. This wasn't sort of done and dusted until quite late on about whether or not he should fight. And Starmer's instinct, again I'm told, and this is well documented, for much of this period was to fight. When he's been saying over the last couple of weeks, as late as Friday morning, after that make a field result, that he would fight come what may. He wasn't lying. That was a real open possibility and it was his intention. But over the course of the weekend, following in particular on Friday afternoon,
a series of what have been described as brutal conversations with his cabinet colleagues, even some of those who are not necessarily friends or allies of Andy Burnham. Cabinet minister after cabinet minister basically telling him that the game was up, that the support within the parliamentary Labour Party had all but evaporated, and if he did choose to fight, which he could have done, that Andy Burnham... would contest the leadership and he would almost certainly lose with the membership in what would be a bitter, protracted and acrimonious contest that would damage whatever is left of his legacy. And clearly, that is something that in the end he's decided not to do.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What led to Keir Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister?
0:00–8:58
2
How did Andy Burnham position himself for leadership?
8:58–17:38
3
What factors contributed to the Labour Party's internal conflicts?
17:38–27:12
4
How did Starmer's leadership impact Labour's public perception?
27:12–37:52
5
What were the emotional responses to Starmer's resignation?
37:52–48:24
6
How does the political landscape change with Burnham's potential rise?
48:24–51:16
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The News Agents
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