Report: UK PM Starmer could resign

LONDON — United Kingdom's Prime Minister Keir Starmer was expected to resign on Monday and set out a timetable for his departure, according to The Observer, a local newspaper.

However, UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle said on Sunday that the news of Starmer's quitting is speculation. He added that Starmer is "making time to reflect on the political realities, challenges and opportunities that he finds himself in".

The threat to Starmer's position, which has been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when his rival Andy Burnham won a seat in Parliament that would allow him to launch a formal leadership challenge.

The Observer, which did not name its sources, said Starmer had reached the conclusion that his position was no longer tenable after speaking to cabinet ministers, advisers, donors and trade union leaders.

Starmer led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election win in 2024 but has become deeply unpopular after a series of scandals and policy U-turns that have given many voters an impression that he cannot deliver on improving their standards of living that he promised.

If he were to quit or be ousted, it would mean the country installing its seventh prime minister in just over a decade — the highest turnover in nearly two centuries, reflective of anger at successive governments' failures to improve public services and tackle issues like illegal immigration.

More than 100 elected lawmakers in Starmer's party — roughly a quarter of all Labour representatives in the House of Commons — have publicly said they want him to quit or set out a timetable for his exit, according to a Reuters tally.

Burnham, until last week the mayor of Greater Manchester, decisively won the seat of Makerfield in northwestern England in a special election on Thursday. He took almost 55 percent of the 45,510 votes cast, over 9,000 more than the Reform UK runner-up.

Burnham did not immediately make a formal challenge to Starmer but used his victory address to promise a new path for the country.

Starmer congratulated Burnham on Friday but said he would fight any challenge to his leadership and urged Labour not to tear itself apart with infighting.

But Charlie Falconer, a senior Labour member of the House of Lords, said on Saturday that Starmer has "absolutely no authority" left.

"There should be an agreed transition process in which Andy and Keir cooperate as to when the handover should take place," he said.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA