Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered his final address outside 10 Downing Street on Monday before travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally resign to King Charles III, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to become the country’s seventh prime minister in a single turbulent decade.
Stood outside Downing Street on Monday morning, Starmer declared that his “work is done,” using his last speech in office to defend his record and formally pass leadership of the country to his successor.
“I now pass the baton” to Burnham, Starmer said, wishing him “every success” as prime minister. “He has my full support,” Starmer added. “I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything we have achieved.” Buckingham Palace confirmed shortly afterwards that King Charles III had “graciously” accepted Starmer’s resignation following a private audience at the palace, closing out a premiership that lasted just over two years.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 20, 2026
Starmer’s Defiant Farewell
Rather than a subdued exit, Starmer used his final remarks to mount a vigorous defence of his time in office, listing what he described as concrete gains for the country. He said the British economy is “stronger,” that public service waiting times are down, and that immigration is “down significantly” under his watch. He also argued that Britain’s defence posture is “far stronger” and that the country’s “international reputation is greatly enhanced” as a result of his government’s foreign policy choices.
Starmer struck a more urgent note when turning to the geopolitical landscape he is leaving behind, warning that Britain now faces adversaries prepared to exploit its divisions. “We face a world now where our enemies will stop at nothing to divide us because of our values, our freedom, our decency, and frankly, because of our unflinching resolve towards the brave people of Ukraine,” he said.
Starmer went on to recount his own arc in charge of the Labour Party, noting that in six and a half years he had taken the party from a historic defeat in 2019 to government, framing his tenure as one of transformation despite the circumstances of his exit.
A Well-Worn Handover
With Starmer’s resignation formally accepted, Burnham was expected to travel to Buckingham Palace later Monday for his own private audience with King Charles III, who would then invite him to form a government, the constitutional step, traditionally known as “kissing hands,” that actually confers the office of prime minister, even though no hand-kissing takes place in the modern ceremony.
Burnham will become the 59th prime minister in British history and the seventh to occupy Number 10 in the past decade, a run of leadership churn that has become, in the words of one report, “a now well-rehearsed handover” following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
Following his audience with the king, Burnham was due to travel directly to Downing Street to deliver his own first speech as prime minister, before beginning the process of appointing his cabinet.
A spokesperson for Burnham said ahead of the speech that the incoming prime minister would tell the country he is “acutely aware” of how many changes of leader Britain has been through over the past decade, and would pledge to restore a measure of stability after years of turbulence.
Burnham secured the Labour leadership after winning nominations from 379 of the party’s 403 MPs in the House of Commons, a margin so decisive that no rival candidate was able to mount a serious challenge.
Starmer’s Downfall, In Brief
Starmer’s exit brings to a close a premiership that began with a landslide general election victory in July 2024, ending 14 years of Conservative government, but which unravelled amid a combination of poor local election results and a damaging scandal over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, a controversy tied to Mandelson’s past relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
That fallout, compounded by Labour’s heavy losses in May’s local elections, triggered a wave of resignations and open calls from within his own party for him to step aside, calls that intensified once Burnham won a by-election return to Parliament last month. Facing what had become an untenable position within his own parliamentary party, Starmer ultimately chose to resign as Labour leader, automatically triggering the contest that Burnham has now won.
An In-Tray Overflowing
Burnham inherits a government facing a demanding set of immediate challenges, including a tepid economy, high government borrowing costs, a growing welfare bill, and continued political pressure over irregular migration by small boat, a dynamic that has fuelled support for Reform UK.
Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell said on Sunday that Burnham’s experience governing away from Westminster as mayor of Greater Manchester meant he understood the “bigger, bolder measures” needed to deliver on the party’s manifesto commitments.
Compounding those domestic pressures, unpredictable global energy prices tied to the ongoing US-Iran war, along with the broader unpredictability of US President Trump’s administration, are also expected to weigh heavily on the early months of Burnham’s premiership.
Burnham has signalled he intends to govern differently from his predecessor on economic policy, telling The Times he would take a “different approach to public spending, and to running the economy, more focused on early investment, early intervention, setting people up for success, and much less paying for failure.”
Speaking after his confirmation as Labour leader on Friday, he pledged to “work to build a new politics,” adding, “the country is crying out for it,” while promising to make politics “less toxic” and to help “bring back the hope we have all been missing.”
With Starmer’s resignation now formalised and Burnham’s audience with King Charles III set to follow, Britain’s latest change of prime minister is proceeding along the same well-established constitutional path that has governed six previous transitions since 2016, no general election required, only the internal mechanics of a governing party selecting its new leader.
Whether Burnham can convert his commanding parliamentary mandate and early promises of stability into a premiership that outlasts his immediate predecessors remains the central question hanging over Downing Street as the country absorbs its seventh change of leadership in ten years.
