London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected on Monday to set out a timetable for his departure and begin an orderly transfer of power to rival Andy Burnham. The move would pave the way for Britain’s seventh leader in a decade.
Starmer weighs departure
Less than two years after Starmer won a landslide election victory that had promised to end Britain’s turbulent politics, one source said he spent the weekend considering whether to step aside or fight a leadership contest.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith told Times Radio early on Monday that she would have liked Starmer to remain in office, but said he had been weighing what was best for the country because of the pressure being placed on him.
Burnham gains momentum
The threat to Starmer, which had been building for months, intensified sharply on Friday when Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, decisively won a parliamentary election to return to Westminster. He defeated a candidate from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has led national opinion polls for more than a year.
That result gave Labour lawmakers hope that Burnham, a career politician known for his communication skills, could revive the party’s fortunes after it lost support under Starmer, whose popularity ratings have fallen to the lowest level recorded for any British leader.
Uncertainty over policy and markets
The expected leadership change is not without risk.
Beyond saying the country needs fundamental change and lower living costs, Burnham has not yet made clear his approach to foreign affairs, the economy and defence.
Like Starmer, he could face limited room for action, constrained by bond market investors opposed to further borrowing and by an angry electorate that believes the country is not functioning properly.
Britain already has the highest borrowing costs among the Group of Seven wealthy nations because of its high debt and interest payments, years of weak economic growth, difficulty cutting spending and the need to invest in areas such as defence.
Investors interviewed by Reuters were divided on whether Burnham, who said last September that Britain had to get “beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets”, would recognise the need to reassure financial markets.
