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CNN International: UK PM Keir Starmer to Formally Resign to King Charles. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:27]

ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Breaking News."

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN's special coverage from outside Downing Street. I'm Max Foster.

A new era in British politics beginning yet again. Today is the day that Andy Burnham will officially replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, becoming the UK's seventh Prime Minister in just over 10 years. Actually, five Prime Ministers in four years, so we're getting a new one every year at the moment, so we're pretty well practiced at this.

In the next few minutes, we expect Mr. Starmer to deliver his final statement as Prime Minister here in Downing Street. His entire Cabinet is lined up to hear that moment and all of his staff behind us, so a huge moment for them as well when you consider that many of them will be out of a job, some will keep their jobs, but a big change for a Prime Minister who came in on a wave of popularity and somehow lost that popularity pretty quickly.

He'll then travel to Buckingham Palace to formally resign, and then in around an hour from now, Andy Burnham himself will go into Buckingham Palace and be appointed as Starmer's replacement, so he'll go in as an MP, come out as Prime Minister, and his leadership will begin with another statement here at the lectern in Downing Street.

Now, he is already promising a new era of possibility, having become leader of the Labour Party on Friday.

Alice Stewart is with me, Sam Francis as well, London Playbook Author at "POLITICO." The big mystery, what is Andy Burnham going to do? I mean, this is a -- I mean, it's ironic that he's going to the Palace because people are calling this a coronation of the King of the North.

ALICE STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: King of the North, and what's so interesting is despite having so many Prime Ministers in so few years, this is really the first time we've had a Prime Minister without any kind of leadership contest or general election, which means this Prime Minister has not been grilled on policy, not by the public, not by journalists. We don't know where this Prime Minister will stand on some pretty key areas like foreign policy, so there's a lot people will be hoping for in the speech that we see today. But first of all, we see Keir Starmer leave, and I suspect this will be quite an emotional speech. This is one that always I find quite moving as they leave not just a job, but obviously their home, albeit only for two years.

FOSTER: Yeah, absolutely. And Sam, we see above Downing Street the Ukrainian flags flying. I mean, that's on purpose, right? So, Keir Starmer sees as part of his legacy supporting Ukraine. But we don't know anything particularly about Burnham's foreign policy. I mean, what can you tell us, having reported on him? Because he's not a stranger to Westminster, despite what we're being told.

SAM FRANCIS, LONDON PLAYBOOK AUTHOR, POLITICO: No, no, he was a minister for several years before going to Manchester, but he's always sort of had domestic-focused jobs, really, especially in Manchester. And as you say, we do have the Ukrainian flag flying above here in Downing Street, and that's kind of been a through-line through several Prime Ministers. Boris Johnson sort of first flew it, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer kept it up, and we expect Andy Burnham to do the same.

We kind of have been led to believe that it's going to be continuity on lots of the foreign policy stuff, continuity on Iran, continuity on Ukraine, continuity on coalition of the willing. So, that's about as much as we know, really, because we haven't been tested so far.

FOSTER: He is restricted, isn't he? Because he is coming into a role without a public mandate, and even within Parliament, he was sort of shoehorned in. Everyone was too afraid to go against him, so they just let him come into Downing Street. So, at what point do we actually get the sense of what he does stand for?

STEWART: Well, this is what's going to be so difficult for him, because he has, on Friday, when he gave a speech becoming leader of the Labour Party, said this will be the most significant change in politics for 40 years. People want change, they want something different. Keir Starmer was deemed very unpopular.

However, he has a constitutional mandate, but very much sticking to what people voted for in the general election in 2024, which is Keir Starmer's legacy, really. If he moves too far away from that manifesto, if he tries to implement anything that's too new or too radical, critics will say, hey, you may have a constitutional mandate, but do you have a political mandate?

FOSTER: So, he's going to stick to -- he's talking about sticking to the election manifesto broadly, isn't he?

STEWART: Broadly. But I suspect we'll see some new things. There may be some fudgery here. For instance, in the manifesto it says there will be no licenses, no new licenses for drilling in the North Sea.

Now, we are expecting some sort of announcement on this policy area, but it could be licenses already granted by a previous government that haven't come to fruition. It could be Tybax, which is drilling near existing projects.

[06:05:02]

FOSTER: Yes.

STEWART: So, I think we'll see a little fudgery there.

FOSTER: Which is interesting, because this has been a big issue that President Trump has had with the U.K., North Sea oil drilling.

FRANCIS: Yeah.

FOSTER: He's already commented about how brilliant it is that Burnham's going to do this. Tell us about how you think he'll get on with Trump, because they are very different characters, but they are great in front of the camera, both of them, aren't they? They're good performers.

FRANCIS: I think that's kind of the way that Burnham's pitching at the moment. Again, we don't know. All the indications so far is that he's going to be a much more domestic-focused Prime Minister.

Keir Starmer, on the way out, said good luck with that. International events will dictate a lot of what you do as Prime Minister. But on the Trump question, Burnham, the few things he said is that he thinks he's just going to deal with Trump as a straight shooter. He said, I've got a bit of personality, I think he likes a bit of personality. So, he's going to, as far as we can tell, just sort of go in and see what happens. You can never be too sure what's going to happen when you're talking to Trump.

FOSTER: And as we look at Downing Street right now, we've got the lectern standing there. Anna's a great historian of these factors, because we talk about the lectern, there's several. I don't go into too much detail, like I know you know all about it.

STEWART: I won't bore everyone, but I do really like the lecterns. Over the Conservative Prime Ministers, we've seen different lecterns. We had the more feminine, I think it was Cedarwood for Theresa May, for instance. Liz Truss had a very bizarre, very modern Jenga style. This is the same lectern that Rishi Sunak used, that Keir Starmer's had.

But I think we might have a very big change, according to Sam, in terms of the lectern for Andy Burnham, which may be no lectern at all.

FRANCIS: Take us deeper into lecternology. The lectern discourse has been a big part of politics for the last few years, but reported in the London Playbook this morning. And what I'm hearing from around here as well is that Burnham might not have a lectern. He might be sort of free-forming it.

STEWART: That's his style, to be more open.

FOSTER: What's that statement of, do you think?

FRANCIS: I guess more kind of direct to the, speaking directly to the people. Less kind of official, less stuffy. FOSTER: More t-shirt?

FRANCIS: Less writings and more t-shirts. Yup, we expect to see him in a suit if he's going to see the King today. But I think one of the key things everyone here is concerned about is if, without a lectern, is he going to be moving around? Is he going to be doing this all like a gig? So, I see --

FOSTER: What kind of mic?

FRANCIS: A couple of gigs perhaps? Yeah, could be. We'll see. I mean, how he do that.

STEWART: And how will he be mic'd up?

FRANCIS: Is he holding a mic? Does he have it sort of attached to his ear? Both of those say quite a lot about how he's going to lead the country, maybe.

FOSTER: Yeah. Well, he's been down to podium guy.

STEWART: I thought you were also probably wanting me to get into the fact that the gentleman, the sound engineer, who brings the lectern onto Downing Street has a huge following now on social media as #hot podium guy. He's been, he's gone, you missed it.

FOSTER: I have an issue with him.

STEWART: What?

FOSTER: Because he's not a podium guy. He doesn't carry out a podium. He carries out a lectern.

STEWART: So, you wouldn't hash -- hashtag --

FOSTER: Why do you keep talking about podium guy?

FOSTER: He should be lectern guy.

STEWART: It's not my hashtag.

FOSTER: So, we've got the cabinet lined up there. That's obviously symbolic because there's going to be a massive, one of Andy Burnham's top jobs when he gets inside is to name his cabinet. And number 11 here, where the Chancellor resides, that is going to be defining, isn't he, who he puts in there. Because he's talked about unity and bringing the party together. And he has to keep the left and the right happy with whoever he puts in there. So, take us through that debate.

FRANCIS: Well, I mean, with any prime minister, your chancellor is kind of one of your key ministers. They're all sort of so closely tied to one another. There's been quite a lot of discussion about --

FOSTER: No flies on you. Actually there is.

FRANCIS: Yeah, standing two still, if anything. But who he chooses as Chancellor is going to sort of set the tone for the next few years.

FOSTER: So, he's got Mahmood on the right of the party and he's got Ed Miliband on the left of the party. Both their teams have been briefing that they're both in the running. And he's let that play out. Was he waiting for some feedback, do you think?

FRANCIS: Well, I mean, the operation has been incredibly airtight. Burnham's been describing it as his black box. And it's partly because he's had such a small team coming from Manchester, sort of slowly building his office. You know, he wasn't an M.P. until just a few weeks ago. So he's still been able to keep all of the key decisions within a core team. But as it's progressed, we have been getting a bit more feedback.

There -- you know, there's been a few names attached to it. Wes Streeting was initially attached as one of the main opposition people that were potentially going to run against him. And there was discussions of a deal maybe being done.

Then Ed Miliband, who is a close friend of Burnham, also was a close friend of Keir Starmer, maybe not so much anymore, who's previously worked in the Treasury under Gordon Brown, was suggested. And now we're getting the sense that Shabana Mahmood, the current Home Secretary, might be in there.

Again, she's --

FOSTER: Without having any experience of --

(CROSSTALK)

FRANCIS: Well, she was the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury back under Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. But she's not really held an economic brief. And this --

FOSTER: No, she hasn't spoken about economics in years.

FRANCIS: No, not really. So, we -- we -- there's been a lot of pieces in "POLITICO." We've tried to do a bit of a deep dive into what she believes in. And it's -- you know, not too far away from what Andy Burnham believes in, which is kind of re-industrialization, re- nationalization, but without huge amounts of borrowing. But again, this is all speculation. We just do not know at this point.

[05:10:16]

FOSTER: Yeah. So, we're waiting for the Prime Minister to come out and give his resignation speech. Anna likes a tearjerker.

STEWART: I do.

FOSTER: But you're not going to get that from a famously unemotional Prime Minister, actually.

STEWART: Well, that would make it all the more emotional if he did appear at any stage to be breaking down, sometimes when they thank not just their supporters and their colleagues, but their family. I remember Theresa May, I was practically bawling on Downing Street.

FOSTER: Yes.

STEWART: It was a very sad moment.

FOSTER: Yeah.

STEWART: It's only been two years in Downing Street, which is actually quite a long time compared to --

FRANCIS: These days.

STEWART: These days, I mean, let's trust us in that for 45 days. So, two years, he still probably feels quite attached to the job, and clearly this is not how you ever want to leave a job like this.

FOSTER: It was interesting because I think for our audience, he did actually have quite a strong presence on the international stage. He's a bit of a Macron like that, you know. But domestically, he was really struggling all along, wasn't he?

So, I think sometimes the international audience get a slightly different impression from him because they may have seen him working with Trump very effectively, working with Zelenskyy very effectively, and actually a lot of people respected his move not to get over- involved in Iran.

FRANCIS: Yeah, I think that's -- that's definitely how it's played out in the U.K. I think that's going to be one of the big things he can take away on his last few days as Prime Minister. He's got the Legion d'Honneur. He's got an award out in Ukraine. And he is seen as a kind of a steadfast supporter of lots of the international order, which probably isn't too surprising from a human rights lawyer who has built a lot of his career around kind of the international rules-based order as he sees it. But yeah, domestically, you know, the landslide that he won was incredibly broad and very, very shallow.

So, I think the idea that he was popular domestically at the start and it kind of dozed off, it was, I think, some of those figures hid that he was always on quite a tricky -- tricky terrain. And the fact that -- you know, he's now been booted out for two years and his leadership is because he's failed to keep the party with him. And a lot of those issues are because his MPs were worried domestically that they weren't going to be able to keep their jobs. They were going to lose the next election, basically.

FOSTER: So, we're in Downing Street waiting for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to come out and give his resignation speech. He will still be prime minister when he heads down the road and goes to Buckingham Palace to meet the king and then he'll hand in his resignation and he'll be recommending that Andy Burnham takes over. The king, you know, people say, Anna, he doesn't have any political power.

Actually, he's the only person that can appoint a Prime Minister. Obviously, he wouldn't ever get involved in the decision itself. But actually, you know, these are the moments where we realize actually the British monarch does have a fundamental role in the British constitution and he could have delayed it. He could, you know, there's potential there. But obviously, he'll do everything he can not to show any sort of bias.

STEWART: Of course. I mean, that's probably the role he will play. But also, it's good in the U.K. The prime minister has to answer to someone and that is the monarch. And that's not just now, that is during, you know, weekly meetings. They have to defend their position and explain why they're doing what they are doing.

FOSTER: Yeah.

STEWART: We'll have the king's speech, of course, when there's an opening of parliament. All these things, just making sure that the prime minister knows where his place is, which is, yeah, beneath the monarch in terms of head of state.

FOSTER: Yeah, it's interesting. And then there's the kissing of hands, which Andy Burnham will be expected to perform, although they don't actually do it these days, do they?

FRANCIS: That's what I understand. I've never actually been allowed in the room, but I think it's sort of a firm handshake.

FOSTER: Yes.

STEWART: I've seen it in the crown with Churchill.

FRANCIS: Did he kiss the hands?

STEWART: He did kiss the hand in the crown.

FOSTER: Yes, I think that was --

STEWART: I just -- I think it's outdated.

FRANCIS: Yeah, I think they don't make them do that. I don't think there's, you know, there's some pictures sometimes and there's the famous picture of Liz Truss meeting the queen in one of her final acts before she sadly passed away. But there's not a lot of detail, I think, known from actually what happens and there's not a huge amount of formality, so it probably will just be handshake, quick discussion.

STEWART: Could be some jokes, I would have thought, from Andy Burnham.

FRANCIS: Could be some jokes from Andy Burnham, maybe some discussion about gardening. We know the king's very keen on natural environment, but, yeah, we'll see.

FOSTER: Actually, you know, if you look at many of, you know, I mean, you've been reporting on Charles for years as well. If you look back at many of his key interests, and we talk about environment, religious tolerance, youth unemployment, actually these are a lot of the issues that, you know, are defined by the left in many ways, but Andy Burnham's also been pretty focused on. He's been talking about youth unemployment as well, less so the environment. I wonder what Charles will think about this North Sea oil exploration of Scotland.

[06:15:03]

STEWART: With his green credentials. Yes, I'm not so sure about that. But they have got a lot in common.

FOSTER: You can see them working well together, can't you?

STEWART: I can, but Andy Burnham will work well with many people. Here we go.

FOSTER: Here we go. Prime Minister Keir Starmer with his last speech at his premiere show.

(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH LABOR LEADER: Thank you. Thank you very much. And good morning.

I'm about to visit His Majesty the King to offer my resignation and close the book on my time as Prime Minister. My work is done. In six and a half years, I took our party from a historic defeat in 2019, changed it so it was fit to face the country, and won a landslide general election victory in 2024. Since then, it has been the privilege of my life to serve you and this great country as Prime Minister.

And I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was 2 years ago. Our economy is stronger. Our public services are on the up with the biggest fall in waiting times for 17 years. Children are being lifted out of poverty every single day. Immigration is down significantly. Our defense and security are on a far stronger footing, and our international reputation is greatly enhanced.

Yet the thing I will always take away with me The most humbling aspect of this job is the front row seat you get to witness the greatest things of this country in action, to see every day immeasurable acts of resolve, grit, decency, and compassion from people who serve our country, whether that's in their regimental colours, NHS scrubs, Or simply the millions of people in their communities who volunteer their time and their effort to the ground beneath their feet.

We face a world now where our enemies will stop at nothing to divide us because of our values, our freedom, our decency, and frankly, because of our unflinching resolve towards the brave people of Ukraine. And so under this attack, it is vital that we remember the greatness of the Britain all around us. That while we debate how to fix our problems, there is something we inherit from our country and our character that can give us confidence that we can change our country for the better. That we can create a Britain where every child can go as far as their talent will take them, and we can unite different people. under our common flag if we don't succumb to that division.

So, as I now pass the baton to Andy Burnham, I wish him every success. He has my full support. And finally, I want to thank once again my family, Vic and our children, my team, all the staff here and across the Labour Party, Everyone at Number 10 and across the civil service, and everyone who has supported our efforts along the way.

For all the focus on individuals, politics will always be a team sport, and the changes we've delivered for our country and our party belong to everyone who has fought for them. I thank them again today, and I thank the British people. For the opportunity to serve. I go with good grace, I go with a smile, and I go proud of everything that we have achieved.

Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)

FOSTER: Prime Minister Keir Starmer giving the final speech of his premiership, his whole team there, including the entire cabinet, which is about to change under a new leader, wishing him their best. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, just there on the left. When he actually gave his first resignation, it was a bit more emotional, a bit more like a shock, but this was all about going out with a smile, going out with grace, and really trying to end his premiership in the most positive way.

[06:20:07]

And a pretty bombastic way, talking about his landslide victory when he came into power, how he's improved the economy, improved public services, and strengthened the nation's defenses. But he just landslide victory when he came into power, how he's improved the economy, improved public services, and strengthened the nation's defenses. But he just couldn't keep his party together, ultimately it was his party that brought him down.

But as he takes his Prime Ministerial car to Downing Street, to Buckingham Palace rather, for the very last time, he'll be thinking about how the last couple of years have been very difficult, but he's clearly proud of how he felt his premiership went. The next meeting will be with the King, and that's where he will tender his resignation. The King will accept it, of course, and then shortly after that, the MP currently, Andy Burnham, will be invited to form a government by the King, and we'll see the cars coming back in reverse with the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who will give his own speech.

And we've been hearing some speculation that there won't be a podium at that moment, or even a lectern, which will be interesting. But that was a -- Anna, that's the end of a chapter in British politics. It's a historic moment. I mean, I spoke earlier with you about how these moments feel less historic because they keep happening. But you can't deny the history of what just happened there.

STEWART: They do keep happening. That was -- that was an unusual one, I would say, because I think Keir Starmer left, as you predicted, without much emotion, really, perhaps speaking to an orator who has been quite robotic in speeches in the past, but also because the Labour Party has really united through this transition, unlike some of the transitions we've had in the past, where there have been bitter leadership contests and parties kind of ripped down the middle. Today, this is a transition, and Kier Starmer very keen, I think, to say he's proud of his legacy. He's wishing all the best for Andy Burnham. He hopes that the Labour Party will continue to lead this country well. So,

FOSTER: Yeah. Is he right about having made defense a stronger public sector, stronger economy, stronger pretty much all the jobs of a prime minister? It sounds like it was a complete trial.

FRANCIS: It's a good question. I mean, I think he's leaving sort of questions over both, I'd say. The economy has grown, but it's been sluggish growth. It's been not much better or worse, really, since any of the previous prime ministers. I think we had IMF predicting about percent growth this year. The defense, while he has increased defense spending, one of the first things Andy Burnham's going to have to do is fund the defense investment program, which has been a huge battle in Westminster over the last, well, year or so, where he's found 15 billion worth of extra spending for defenses to push up to three percent.

But when you actually look at the detail, it's through savings that haven't been found yet, and there's about 5 billion of it which haven't even been allocated. So one of the first things, while he says he's made defense better, he's sort of lobbing a bit of a problem straight into Andy Burnham's interest.

FOSTER: Yeah, the reality is Andy Burnham's still going to have the financial constraints of this current government, so --

FRANCIS: Yes, yes, yeah.

FOSTER: -- that's not going to change. We're going to take a quick break because we're about to change prime minister. That officially happens at Buckingham Palace when Keir Starmer resigns, and then we'll have Andy Burnham come in and take up the post and bring it back here to Downing Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:59]

FOSTER: Welcome back to Downey Street. Keir Starmer has arrived at Buckingham Palace. He's offering his resignation to King Charles, which he will, of course, accept because he takes advice from his prime minister. It's kind of one of those constitutional quirks, isn't it? That he takes the advice from the prime minister to take his job away. And then, we will see him close his book on his time as prime minister.

They were his words, actually, Keir Starmer, going out in the most positive note that he could here in his final speech -- his final speech in Downey Street. This has been his home for two years. He came in on a massive wave of support.

Sam, you know, arguably, it was one of the most successful elections in modern history, wasn't it? Even going back to Tony Blair, which was another landslide. But it took longer for Tony Blair to build up that landslide. So, Keir Starmer, when he came into power, you know, had the biggest mandate we can remember.

FRANCIS: Absolutely. The turnaround from the worst defeat in 80 years to one of the largest victories in the Labour Party's history was historic. But hidden underneath some of those figures was the fact that the number of actual votes reduced between the 2019 and 2024 elections.

So, while he had something like a 170-seat majority, the spread of the votes was incredibly thin, which I think is one of the effects we're seeing right now, where they had a lot of MPs with very marginal constituencies, very, very jumpy.

And while Starmer won that huge victory, if you speak to some of the Labour MPs, which I do most days for my job, there was a real sense that he got into the job and didn't really know how to use them. There's a lot of --

FOSTER: There was no plan, right?

FRANCIS: You know, he definitely had an idea of what he wanted to do, but there was sort of a few resets from that first year, which spoke to the fact that I think we now do know that when they got in, they thought a program for government would have been further along than they found.

But it meant that he had his manifesto, he had his plan of what to do, but not really a great idea of how to bring the MPs alongside it. And as he's learnt now, it's the MPs that let you keep your job.

FOSTER: So, we've got the flag, the royal standard flying above Buckingham Palace, which of course symbolizes that the king is in residence. Actually, there's another sort of reflection of history we could put on here, because the king's announced that he's not going to live in Buckingham Palace, but it is going to be the home of the monarchy, and we're getting a sense of that. So, he lives at Clarence House down the road.

STEWART: He's not far away, is he?

FOSTER: But he goes to Buckingham Palace for the major constitutional moments. It's still the focal point of these events.

STEWART: Clarence House is just over the road from Buckingham Palace, so he's kind of next door. It's a little bit like number 10 and number 11, isn't it?

FOSTER: Yes.

STEWART: But yes, Buckingham Palace is being renovated. It's -- I hear there's a lot of work going on in there, but it will be used for official business. And there should be more tours for the public, so it can actually be seen by the public.

[06:30:06]

FOSTER: And be used for public use, presumably by government bodies.