London: british prime minister Keir Starmer was nearly devastated on Monday as he found himself consigned to the rubble of history, and like Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss before him, he was ousted from his No. 1 spot. 10 by his own hon.After just two years in office, his authority within the party evaporated following Andy Burnham’s landslide victory in the Makefield by-election and the podium appeared in front of No 10, where Starmer delivered his resignation speech despite earlier insisting he would not resign.Nigel Farage, chairman of the UK Reform Party, immediately called for a general election. Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray played Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from a loudspeaker outside the door, almost drowning out his words and making it look like a funeral.After reflection at Checkers over the weekend, Starmer told No 10 staff and a large media crowd on Monday that he realized his party did not believe he was best suited to lead Labor into the next general election. “I have heard the answer and I accept it with joy,” he said, explaining that he had told the king he was stepping down. Nominations for the Labor leadership race will open on July 9 and be completed on July 16. “I will give my full support to my successor,” he said, adding that he would remain as caretaker prime minister until the new prime minister takes office, which will be completed by September 1 and possibly earlier.“As I leave the most important job in the country, I will spend more time on the job that matters most: being the best husband I can be to my wonderful wife, Vic,” he said, his voice cracking and his chin quivering, “and being the best father to my beautiful children.” He then went to hug Victoria and staff applauded. It was a rare moment for Starmer to connect with the public, something he has been unable to do during his tenure as prime minister, which has led to Labor’s decline in the polls and a surge in support for Reform Britain. Starmer has been consistently rated as the most unpopular British Prime Minister on record.The market did not react with resignation as expected. Former Conservative MP Michael Gove on Sunday described Starmer looking at the lawn at Checkers and seeing “Burnham Wood” marching towards Checkers, similar to Birnam Wood heading towards Dunsinane, foreshadowing Macbeth’s downfall.The camera quickly moves to Manchester, where Andy Burnham is surrounded by media as he boards the 11.39am train to London to be sworn in as the new MP for Makefield. Before boarding the plane, he tweeted that he planned to enter the leadership competition. Three minutes later, former health minister Wes Streeting, considered his main leadership challenger, tweeted that he was supporting Burnham and would not run. TV channels then filmed the train’s arrival in Euston from a helicopter, and when Burnham arrived at Euston, media were stopped by police and whisked away to Parliament in a black taxi. Burnham, a Cambridge graduate who went on to become Britain’s first Catholic prime minister, established an alternative Labor brand in Manchester that had nothing to do with the shenanigans of Westminster. Starmer, a former lawyer, is often described as stiff, managerial and process-oriented, while Burnham is seen as more charismatic, relatable and emotionally intelligent.Keir Starmer criticized the “Tory Party chaos” during his tenure as Labor leader. But on Monday he became the second-shortest-serving Labor prime minister ever, the first being Ramsay MacDonald, who served for nine months in 1924.The next British Prime Minister will be the seventh in ten years. Lib Dem chairman Ed Davey tweeted: “The British people are fed up with an endless succession of Prime Ministers who let them down while nothing actually changes.” Conservative leader Keimi Badenock said: “Keir Starmer resigned because the former defense secretary said he didn’t care about national security. If Andy Burnham doesn’t have any answers on national security issues, we should have a general election.““Andy Burnham made no manifesto at all at the last election. The great British public deserve to have their say,” said Farage, whose party leads the polls.“Andy Burnham has won back parts of the country that had overwhelmingly rejected Labor just weeks before, showing that we can still win a general election if Labor makes changes,” Streeting said, referring to Labour’s disastrous results in local elections when many seats were lost to Reform Britain. It was these results, along with former defense secretary John Healey’s recent scathing resignation letter, Starmer’s mistaken appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, an unpopular inheritance tax on farmers, cuts to winter fuel subsidies for pensioners, the Chagos agreement, the abolition of jury trials and a host of other policies and mistakes that ultimately led to Starmer’s downfall.
