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Keir
Starmer expected to announce departure as prime minister on Monday
Business
secretary says Starmer is reflecting on ‘political realities’, amid
overwhelming pressure from MPs
Peter
Walker Senior political correspondent
Sun 21
Jun 2026 09.04 BST
Keir
Starmer is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as prime
minister, after overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy
Burnham to become Labour leader.
The prime
minister and his allies had insisted for weeks that they would fight a
leadership challenge from Burnham, or anyone else, before the Makerfield
byelection in which Burnham secured a return to Westminster.
But on
Sunday morning, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, told Sky News that Starmer
was spending the weekend “making time to reflect on the political realities” he
faces.
Speaking
for the government, Kyle refused to say what he thought Starmer’s plans were,
or what he had asked the PM to do.
Asked if
Starmer did plan to step down on Monday, Kyle said he had no reason to think
this was the case. He said that Starmer would be reflecting on “what putting
country first means in a moment like this”.
He did
not push back on the idea that a change in No 10 was imminent after Burnham’s
big win in Thursday’s byelection.
Saying he
had spoken at length to Starmer on Friday, Kyle said: “What I know for a fact
is that he has been engaging in conversations with a wide, wide range of
people, including myself, and that he is working really hard over this weekend.
“I think
he is making time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and
opportunities that he finds himself in. You know, I think that is what people
would expect him to be doing at this moment in time.”
Downing
Street denied that Starmer was planning to go, saying his position was
unchanged since Friday.
Speaking
to reporters then, Starmer had said: “If there is a contest, just to be clear
with you, then, yes, I will run.” He said such a contest would “plunge us into
chaos”.
After the
Greater Manchester mayor won Thursday’s contest by a significant margin over
Reform, gaining a 9,000-plus majority and more than 50% of the vote, Burnham’s
team believed they had the support of about 200 Labour MPs, about half the
parliamentary party.
That
number has since increased, with Burnham becoming increasingly confident of a
coronation in which he would take over as Labour leader and thus PM without a
contest, with Starmer setting out a relatively quick timetable for departure.
On
Friday, ministers previously loyal to Starmer told him that he should reach a
decision on a timetable for his departure by the end of the weekend or face
being forced out of office, with an intervention at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting
likely to result.
Any MP
who wishes to challenge to be leader needs the backing of at least 20% of the
parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.
Wes
Streeting, the former health secretary, who resigned last week in frustration
at Starmer’s leadership, has pledged to seek the top job and says he has
sufficient backers, but allies of Starmer and Burnham are sceptical. His
candidacy will become less likely if wavering Labour backbenchers conclude that
they would prefer to back a likely winner and swing behind Burnham.
Starmer’s
departure will set the UK on course for a seventh prime minister in 10 years,
just two years after he led Labour to a sweeping general election victory,
winning a majority of 174.
But his
premiership has been battered by controversies and U-turns, including over
winter fuel payments to older people and the decision to appoint Peter
Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington.
Labour
has slumped in the polls, and Starmer himself is enormously unpopular with much
of the public. Reform UK has led for more than 300 consecutive national polls,
with many Labour MPs increasingly convinced that without a change of leader,
Nigel Farage will become the next prime minister.
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