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U.K. PM Keir Starmer Announces His Resignation. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 22, 2026 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[04:31:18]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome. It's 9:30 a.m. in London where we take you to 10 Downing Street as we wait to hear from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he just emerged from the building. Let's listen in.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Thank you. Walking up this street two years ago was the proudest moment of my life. A new Labour government, the first in 14 years. A page in our country's history turned after years of disappointment and despair.

The chance to change the lives of millions of people for the better. That's what I came into politics for.

The journey to that point was not easy. Six years ago I inherited a Labour Party that was politically, financially and morally bankrupt. I was told time and time again that my party was finished. That we were consigned to history. That a majority at the general election, let alone a landslide majority, was impossible.

But we proved those people wrong because we changed our party. Ripping out the poison of anti-Semitism, restoring trust on the economy, defense and national security. And becoming a party that once again stood proudly with not against our national flag.

The hard work of change was with a singular purpose. Not power for power's sake, but to change Britain for the better. To build a fairer country with dignity and respect where everyone is seen, everyone is valued. Wealth and opportunity for all, not just the privileged few.

And look at what we've achieved in just two years. An economy that is stronger, growing faster than our peers. Wages rising faster than inflation in every single month since we came to power. Investment secured, infrastructure being built, an end to austerity with the fastest fall in NHS waiting lists for 17 years, the biggest improvement in rights for workers and renters in a generation, the biggest uplift in defense spending since the Cold War, small boat crossings falling, asylum hotels closing, protecting young people from social media and half a million children being lifted out of poverty because of the choices that I made.

Our reputation in the world restored with Britain once again standing up for decency, respect and the rule of law, securing trade deals, standing with Ukraine, standing up for our values and rebuilding our relationship with our allies in Europe. Change promised by a Labour government. Change fought for by a Labour government. Change delivered by a Labour government.

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But I know the question being asked now is not who was best placed to change the Labour Party to take us into power and to begin the vital work of improving lives for millions of people. Those questions have been answered. The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my Parliamentary party to that question and I accept that answer with good grace.

Every decision I've taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision. I will ask the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to set out a timetable with nominations opening on 9th of July and completed by the summer recess.

In the case of a contest, this will ensure a new leader is in place before Parliament returns in September. I will remain in post as Prime Minister until the contest is complete and I will do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover of power. I will also give my successor my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago, better prepared for the challenges ahead and better able to ensure the Labour Party secures a second term in office.

I want to thank all of those friends and colleagues who have been at my side for these past six years or so for their incredible commitment, service and support. I want to thank the brilliant number 10 staff and our country's extraordinary civil service who dedicate their lives to public service.

And when I leave the biggest job in the country, I shall spend more time on the most important job, being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife Vic, who has been a rock by my side through good times and bad and being the best dad I can to my beautiful children who are my pride and my joy.

Thank you very much.

SANDOVAL: Again, you just saw some live pictures at 10 Downing Street where it's currently just past 9:30 in the morning. We heard from Prime Minister Keir Starmer with his address announcing his resignation. He said that he has already alerted the King. The Prime Minister saying that he's ensuring that a new leader is in place before U.K.'s Parliament returns come September.

Starmer vowing to do everything that he can to ensure an orderly handover of power. Also interesting here, vowing his support to his next potential successor. Of course, we've spoken just a few minutes ago with one of our experts in how essentially the stage there is set potentially for Andy Burnham, after winning a special election just last week to potentially be but of course, a lot still has to happen.

We do want to play again for you just some of we just heard from the prime minister. Again, he was facing some what many have described as insurmountable pressure in the U.K., specifically from his Labour Party. Here's what we heard just a few moments ago there from 10 Downing Street.

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STARMER: The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my Parliamentary party to that question and I accept that answer with good grace. Every decision I've taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Let's go to CNN's Clare Sebastian joining us live from 10 Downing Street.

Clare, it's good to see you again. So you've heard from the prime minister there. What's some of the immediate reaction? He says that a new leader could likely be in place in the coming months.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So look, this is now going to be a process that's going to last several months. And he said that nominations for a leadership contest will open on the 9th of July and they expect to have someone in place. He said, by the time Parliament returns from its summer recess in September, that will mean, and this is a big thing within U.K. politics, that they'll have a new leader at the Labour Party conference, which is the annual gathering of that party, which is happening at the end of September.

[04:40:22]

But look, this was a statement, a moment that this Prime Minister never really wanted to happen. He's had lots of questions over the past weeks and months around his leadership. He has constantly come back with the refrain that he is the one with the mandate to deliver the change that he had promised, that he, as the first Labour prime minister in 14 years, when he was elected not quite two years ago, will be the one to do that. And he wanted to stay on.

But he said today that, look, he had heard the questions from his party around whether he will be the one to take the party into the next general election, which has to happen by the middle of 2029. And he heard that the answer is no. And he said he accepts that with good grace. So we are now entering a transition period in U.K. politics.

Andy Burnham, who is widely seen, and especially after his resounding victory in the Makerfield by-election last week, a special election that restored him as a member of Parliament and brought him back to Parliament able to challenge the prime minister. He is the man seen widely as best placed to take over. But it looks like now there will be a contest, a process. So we are now in this transition period for a couple of months, it looks like.

SANDOVAL: And Clare, you pointed out earlier in the hour that U.K. residents have now seen six prime ministers in just the last decade. If you could give our viewers around the world just a sense of what the general sentiment is, not only their feelings on their current and soon to be resigning prime minister, but just overall.

SEBASTIAN: Yes, look, this is 10 years. This week tomorrow is the day since the Brexit referendum where the U.K. voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union. Questions have arisen recently around the merits of that, the economic damage that it has wrought. But there are lots of reasons why we've seen this churn in prime ministers over the last sort of 10 years or so, and in particular the last five years, economic troubles, the pandemic left the U.K. with a lot of debt.

And we saw this sort of change of the guard two years ago, the Labour Party coming back into power after 14 years of the Conservative Party. Those are the two main parties in the U.K. Keir Starmer was only the seventh Labour prime minister ever. So this is a party that really wants to hang on to power that came in promising an end to the chaos that we saw under the Conservative government. And I think everyone will want, in the -- in the context of this tumultuous political landscape that we see in the U.K., everyone will want this transition to go as smoothly and politely, frankly, as possible. No one wants to enter into any kind of mudslinging within the Labour Party.

They really want to hang on to this opportunity that they've got as best they can. Danny.

SANDOVAL: Yes. CNN's Clare Sebastian with that very important context, as you and your team continue to cover the breaking news from 10 Downing Street. Thank you.

Let's discuss further now with CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas. He's back with me again.

Dominic, we talked just a few minutes ago. We knew that the stage was set, we knew that this was a likely outcome, so this is certainly not surprising. But now that it's official, I'm wondering if I can get your immediate reaction and the -- and remind us what happens next.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, they seem to have agreed that a transition period is necessary rather than an immediate race and replacement of the prime minister. I think that's probably a wise decision. There's been enough turbulence, as Clare Sebastian just pointed out, in U.K. politics over the last few years and so on. And so we'll have to wait and see whether there's going to be a leadership contest with other candidates. If there are, it would be a mere form, you know, process, formality, because it's clear that Andy Burnham will be the next prime minister. Having said that, the bigger context is that this will yet again be a candidate selected by a party in power and not elected by the general population. And I think there's a deep realisation that U.K. politics, actually, even since Keir Starmer was elected, has changed dramatically. And we saw that in the voting in the local elections, that the Reform Party has a much greater footprint in U.K. politics today than it did just a few years ago, and so does the Green Party. And I think that ultimately the general election coming down the road to give legitimacy and -- to Andy Burnham will be interesting and will return a radically new configuration in Parliament that could ironically satisfy the British public moving forward. So I think there is some positive that can come out of this turbulence and transition.

SANDOVAL: And keeping that in mind, too, Dominic, you were -- we're talking about it just a little while ago, which is now 10 years after the historic Brexit vote, and you did so well at really covering what is the growing dissatisfaction among so many people in the U.K. Six prime minister in just the last decade alone. I mean, just if you could expand on what was this insurmountable pressure that the prime minister was under.

[04:45:19]

THOMAS: Yes. So I think it's important to understand that, yes, the Labour Party scored a near historic victory in the landslide election 2024. So very recently. But I think a lot of that voting was not so much forced armor, but not for the Conservative Party. That people had simply had enough of 14 rules of Conservative Party rule.

And they benefited from that. But they also inherited a whole range of challenges. Shifting global politics, uncertainty around NATO, uncertainty around the partnership with the European Union. And so all of those things have made it difficult as well as with a Starmer administration that made a number of mistakes. Backtracking on policy promises over taxation and so on, benefits, inadequate attention in the public mind to the National Health Service and so on.

But I think that beyond that, so many of the lingering issues that were inherited from Brexit and shaped the Brexit debate, which were about national identity, which were about immigration and those kinds of questions remain in British politics. And it's a far more divided, far more polarized system in so many ways. The two party system of simply the Conservative and Labour Party no longer reflects the ways in which people are voting throughout the U.K. and are looking for different options on political ballots.

SANDOVAL: Yes. Potentially new era around the corner. Really appreciate it, Dominic Thomas. Thank you so much for coming back to us to provide that very valuable insight amid that breaking news.

We are going to take a very short break. Stay with CNN as we continue to cover the breaking news out of the U.K. and the announcement directly from Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself that he is soon to step down.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARMER: When I leave the biggest job in the country, I shall spend more time on the most important job, being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife Vic, who has been a rock by my side through good times and bad and being the best dad I can to my beautiful children who are my pride and my joy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And welcome back to CNN's ongoing breaking news coverage. Right now, you just heard Prime Minister Keir Starmer making that announcement just a few moments ago outside of 10 Downing Street announcing that he will step down. Of course, this is something that was widely expected already for quite some time now that it becomes official. We do want to continue to get some more perspectives now, more insight.

Head over to Patrick Baker now if we could, to get a little bit more insight on what this is likely going to mean.

Patrick, thank you so much for joining us as we cover this breaking news.

PATRICK BAKER, HOST OF POLITICO'S "WESTMINSTER INSIDER" PODCAST: Hey, how are you doing? Glad to be here.

SANDOVAL: So, Patrick, in the face of growing dissatisfaction and political turmoil, this is certainly the outcome that we quite frankly all expected. What kind of potential positives do you see for the people of the U.K. once a new leader is selected?

BAKER: I think for a long time it's felt as if we've been living under a kind of zombie government. There's been a sense that this isn't a government that is particularly stable or one that's going to last very long under Keir Starmer, given his unpopularity with the public at large. And that was reflected in the recent local elections, midterms, you might call them, in which the U.K. public voted for a range of other parties, especially the right wing populist party, Reform U.K. So I think this news today will, for many on the left, many in the Labour Party, be a welcome chance for them to reset, for them to get someone in who they feel is a better communicator with the public, someone who will have a fresh set of ideas, fresh agenda. But there's no doubt that more broadly, I think the British public do feel that this is our seventh prime minister in 10 years, we've seen so much political turmoil.

One of the, excuse me, one of the first things that Keir Starmer said when he -- when he joined -- when he arrived was I'm going to make politics kind of go away. I want everything to be a bit quieter. Well, that really hasn't been the case of the last two years. So I think there is definitely a sense of fatigue, a sense of the fact that politics just doesn't seem to be quieting down in this country. And who knows, we may get more stability under the next prime minister if it does indeed prove to be Andy Burnham.

But I think a lot of people are skeptical that really this kind of churn, this turmoil that we've seen is really going to -- is really going to go away.

SANDOVAL: Lest we forget that the Peter Mandelson scandal as well. So there was certainly these basically swimming up against the current of this political turmoil that you mentioned.

Patrick, in terms of the Labour Party, for viewers outside of the U.K., give us sense of what this establishment now needs to show the people, not only within the U.K. but also around the world, you think?

BAKER: Yes, I think there's a real sense that Britain for a long time has been trying to figure out its own identity on the global stage. We had Brexit 10 years ago. In fact, it's the 10-year anniversary tomorrow. We've had so many different prime ministers since then. So much volatility.

I think people are kind of looking to the U.K. and asking it, what do you stand for? Do you want to be closer to America? Do you want to be closer to Europe? Do you want to be somewhere in between? So I think this volatility that we're seeing, it really undermines Britain's credibility on the global stage.

You know, Britain is, I think still today seen as a key global player. It's part of the U.N. Security Council. And I think there'll be serious questions asked of the incoming prime minister about whether he's got that heft on the global stage, that ability to deliver kind of Britain's contribution as a foreign policy player on the world stage. So I think this constant turmoil that we're seeing really does ask questions from the rest of the world. And I think a lot of people in the U.K. are kind of sensing that, that perhaps this country has not got anything like the political stability that you'd want in a major -- in a major global power.

SANDOVAL: Yes, without a doubt, Starmer's successor will step into a very volatile time. And as you point out, as European partners are trying to show this united front while the war in the middle continues.

Thank you so much for your time, Patrick Baker, for your insight. Appreciate it.

BAKER: Thank you.

[04:54:55]

SANDOVAL: And we'll be right back with much more. Don't go anywhere. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage.

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SANDOVAL: It's coming up on 10:00 a.m. we continue to follow breaking news out of London where Keir Starmer announcing that he will be stepping down as the prime minister of the U.K. CNN's breaking news coverage continues with Becky Anderson in a moment.

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