UK's Starmer Expected To Set Out Exit Timetable As Burnham Waits In The Wings

by Staff Writer 22-06-2026 | 12:52 PM

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected on Monday to set out a timetable for his departure and usher in an orderly transfer of power to rival Andy Burnham, paving the way for Britain's seventh leader in a decade.

Less than two years after Starmer won a landslide election victory that promised to end ‌Britain's chaotic politics, one source said the prime minister had 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 stay on but he had been weighing what was best for the country, due to the "pressure that is being brought upon him".

The threat to Starmer, which has been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, decisively won a parliamentary election to return to Westminster, beating a candidate from Nigel Farage's Reform UK party which has led national opinion polls for more than a year.

That victory gave hope to Labour ⁠lawmakers that Burnham, a career politician known for his communication skills, could transform the fortunes of a party that has lost support under Starmer, whose popularity ratings have sunk to the lowest for any British leader.

But the widely expected change of leader is not without risk.