THE revolving door at 10 Downing Street has seen another premature exit amid rising upheaval in British politics. Despite promising a stiff resistance against the growing anger against him within the Labour Party, Prime Minister Mr. Keir Starmer has finally given in, paving way for a new leader for the United Kingdom. In all probability, Mr. Starmer’s staunch opponent within the party and popular choice Mr. Andy Burnham will become the UK’s next Prime Minister, making him the seventh PM Britain has seen in the last one decade. Mr. Starmer was courting trouble for many decisions he decided to force after getting elected as Labour leader in July 2024. There is a reason for this decline in popularity.

 

Despite the faith shown in him by the party which decided to call back Mr. Rishi Sunak as PM, Mr. Starmer had struggled on various administrative fronts. Stunted economic growth has remained the biggest hurdle for all leaders entering the Downing Street office and Mr. Starmer proved no exception in faltering at the post. His premiership took a downward turn due to stagnant living standards and increasing cost of living amid global tensions and faulty handling of the economy at the domestic front. All the problems that Mr. Starmer had promised to solve much better than his predecessor Mr. Sunak came back to haunt him even as the country’s economy continued to lag behind. It is the same old story for Britain since it decided to exit the European Union.

 

The Brexit referendum, introduced by former PM Mr. David Cameron, took down some big names before Mr. Boris Johnson executed the divorce. He, too, later paid the price of the decision that has strained the UK’s economy really badly. Since then the revolving door has seen entry and exit of Ms. Theresa May, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Liz Truss, Mr. Sunak and now Mr. Starmer. However, Mr. Starmer’s resignation was in the offing for a long time. Some of his decisions had caused deep consternation within his Labour party and pressure had been building for months. Mr. Burnham, his party colleague, articulated the PM’s failure with his effective speeches and the Labour party was convinced about Mr. Starmer’s imminent exit. The lawmakers were concerned over the downfall of the Labour party after Mr. Starmer indulged in repeated missteps. The final straw came when the PM appointed tainted former MP Mr. Peter Mandelson as Britain’s Ambassador to the United States. It caused severe discontent among the Labour lawmakers and also in the emerging right-wing groups. Though Mr. Mandelson was sacked soon after his links with convicted sex offender Mr. Jeffery Epstein emerged, the damage was done for Mr. Starmer.

 

The United Kingdom now looks up to a new PM soon. The most potential candidate, Mr. Burnham, if he becomes the new Prime Minister, will have a lot of corrections to carry out to put the UK in the league of top European nations. To his credit, Mr. Starmer had done a commendable job in raising a united front of European countries to help Ukraine in the war against Russia. This was done after US President Mr. Donald Trump unilaterally launched a patch-up bid between Russia and Ukraine which was heavily loaded in Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin’s favour. Mr. Starmer decided to challenge the US imperialism and barged into the peace talks to establish supremacy of Europe in the entire issue. The outgoing PM was also a bold voice of opposition when Mr. Trump pressured his allies in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for a military operation against Iran to free the Strait of Hormuz. His efforts to mitigate the impact of the Iran war were notable as he opened a new front for freedom of movement from the strategic maritime waterway by way of diplomacy. Both efforts will become a striking part of geopolitics but Mr. Starmer will also become a part of unwanted British history where successive PMs failed to keep the UK economy healthy.