Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.

U.K. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, after just 23 months as prime minister and a rapid decline in popularity.

Under Starmer’s leadership, the Labour Party suffered repeated and record defeats in local elections to the right-wing Reform Party. Starmer’s rapid unpopularity rested on his austerity policies and, among the left, his repression of Palestine solidarity activists.

Starmer’s likely successor is Andy Burnham, previously the mayor of Greater Manchester, who won a parliamentary by-election on Thursday that made Starmer’s resignation almost inevitable. Many in Labour understood Burnham’s by-election win to mean that the candidate has a higher chance of moving beyond Labour’s losses to Reform.

Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, considered Burnham’s main rival, said that he will back Burnham. But critics are not optimistic that the change-over will bring an end to Labour’s crisis.

Charlie Hore, a socialist activist in the U.K., told Truthout:

UK Convicts Palestine Action Activists in Crackdown on Palestine Solidarity

Starmer won in 2024 by promising change, and then repeatedly kicked Labour’s supporters in the teeth. It’s hard to remember the last time that a government lost so much support and respect so quickly. Why? Take your pick – taking winter fuel allowances from pensioners; keeping the hated two-child cap on benefits; pandering to the racist right over migration and refugees; Peter Mandelson; supporting the genocide in Gaza; and suspending Labour MPs who opposed any of this.

Starmer won in 2024........

© Truthout