There are politicians who win historic majorities and spend them. Keir Starmer won the largest parliamentary majority in Labour history in 2024, a margin so overwhelming that analysts declared a generational realignment, and resigned Monday morning, having apparently decided that 23 months was the right amount of time to spend a generational realignment.
His departure speech was delivered outside 10 Downing Street, and his first call was to King Charles at Highgrove, as protocol requires. The King was at his country estate. He has cancer. He has been in active treatment since February 2024. He took the call and learned that he has received the resignation of his second prime minister in fewer than three years of reign, a rate of prime ministerial turnover that nobody put in the coronation program.
Starmer is the seventh British prime minister in ten years. For context: David Cameron resigned over Brexit. Theresa May resigned over Brexit. Boris Johnson resigned after it emerged he had been holding parties in Downing Street during a lockdown that he was simultaneously imposing on the rest of the country as a matter of public health. Liz Truss resigned after 45 days when her budget caused the pound to collapse so dramatically that a head of iceberg lettuce, purchased by a newspaper on her first day in office and placed next to her photograph, outlasted her in the job and became a recurring national reference point. Rishi Sunak lost a general election. Starmer won an enormous one and could not survive his own parliamentary party.
According to GB News, Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, arrived in London by train on Monday after winning a parliamentary by-election four days ago specifically to be positioned as the successor. TV helicopters followed the train from Manchester. An MP heckled him as he entered Parliament, according to GB News, shouting, “He’s not the Messiah.” Burnham responded, “Naughty boy,” a reference to Monty Python’s Life of Brian that is either self-aware genius or the most alarming first impression a prospective prime minister has made in this particular decade, which has already produced several alarming first impressions.
The King, who attended three days of Ascot last week with cancer and who has a full ceremonial schedule this week, will conduct the formal resignation audience and commission a new prime minister. He has not commented on any of it. The lettuce, for its part, is still going.
When a prime minister wins a generational majority and resigns before anyone feels the generation, what exactly did the voters get?
Sources
GB News: Keir Starmer confirms he held talks with King Charles and informed monarch of his decision to resign
GB News: Starmer resignation live blog
