With a Trembling Voice, UK PM Resigns: 'This Is to Put the Country First'

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he made the decision to resign “with good grace”. Starmer also acknowledged that he was not the right person to lead the governing Labour Party into the next election. Less than two years after his landslide election victory, Starmer stated it was clear that the Labour Party he led wanted him to step down. “The question my party is asking now is whether I am the best person to lead us into the next election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace,” Starmer said as he announced his resignation outside the Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street, London. “Every decision I have taken has been to put the country I love first. That is why I will be resigning as leader of the Labour Party,” he said with a trembling voice in an emotional speech. Resigning as Labour Party leader will also end Starmer’s tenure as British Prime Minister. The Labour Party will subsequently hold a leadership election, with the winner becoming the next Prime Minister. Starmer said the process to elect a new Labour Party leader would begin on 9 July, and he would remain as Prime Minister until his successor is chosen, expected around September. Starmer added that he had spoken with King Charles III on Monday morning before announcing his resignation to the public. “I have spoken with His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision,” he said. Starmer’s resignation opens the way for Britain to have a new Prime Minister, who will be the seventh in the last decade. This marks an unprecedented rate of leadership turnover in modern British history.