Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigns

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:30No bouncing between tabs. And best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Try for free today at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. With the new Schwab Teen Investor Account, teens can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits. It's an account co-owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor and engage with the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at schwab.com.

1:05Hello and welcome to NewsHour, coming to you live from the BBC in London. I'm Rajini Vaidyanathan. Well, it's been a turbulent decade in British politics and now the nation's looking to its seventh Prime Minister in ten years. Now, in Britain's parliamentary system, it's the party which decides its leader and therefore who is the Prime Minister. and for Keir Starmer it had become clear that his Labour Party no longer felt he should govern. Nearly two years after winning a landslide the pressure for him to quit became overwhelming and so a few hours ago just after nine o 'clock in the morning here he announced that he would stand down.

1:47Well Keir Starmer says he will stay on as Prime Minister until his successor is in place. His likely replacement is the former mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham who's just arrived in London and soon he'll be sworn in as an MP, a step which unlocks his path to number 10. Well, I've been in Downing Street. I'm looking out, of course, at one of the most famous addresses in the world, the black door of number 10 Downing Street on what is a very beautiful, bright, sunny Monday. And it was on this street that a lectern appeared at about nine-ish this morning, just after nine this morning, and the Prime Minister stepped out and gave one of the most monumental addresses of his political career.

2:36Every 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. Just days ago, Keir Starmer said he'd fight off any leadership challenge. Now he'll become the shortest serving Labour prime minister in history. So how did we get here just two years after Keir Starmer delivered the Labour Party a massive victory, bringing his party back from years of being stuck in opposition? You campaigned for it, you fought for it, you voted for it, and now it has arrived.

3:20Change begins now. APPLAUSE Keir Starmer's faced pressure in recent months for changing his position on policies, upsetting different wings of his party. But his most public criticism came over his decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to Washington, a man who was friends with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And for others, it was also much more simple. They felt he lacked charisma and didn't connect with voters. These times of change can be complex, On my way out of Downing Street, I overheard Rob Pittman trying to explain what had just happened to his two young sons.

3:59How old are they both? They're eight and six. Eight and six. So how are you explaining this to them? What are their names? This here is Sebastian and this one here is Freddie. I'm just explaining to them that every now and then, you know, when you're a leader, you have to make really hard decisions and you have to think about, you know, the broader sort of making things work for the country. and sometimes when you do that, you decide that maybe it's better that you let somebody else have a chance, and that's a good sign of leadership. Sebastian, Freddie, do you understand what's going on? Yes.

4:32The Prime Minister is basically firing himself. From Downing Street to Parliament, where there's a golden hue on the House of Commons on this sunny Monday. The focus now is on who will take over, and there's only one name in the frame so far. The Labour Party appears to be coalescing around the former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who's returning to Parliament after winning a by-election in the north of England last week. He's seen as someone who can win votes back in the heartlands, where the anti-immigration reform UK party's gaining ground. We've been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn't worked for people and places in this part of the world.

5:15And this now is the change moment. Alex McIntyre is the Labour MP for Gloucester, one of the many who entered Parliament for the first time under Keir Starmer. Keir has made a really difficult decision today, but I think it was the right one for the country. I have a lot of respect for the work that Keir's done as leader of our party, taking us from our worst defeat in 2019 to an election victory in 2024, of which I was part. If he helped Labour win a landslide after years in opposition, why is the party pushing him out? Well, I think it's been really clear from the results we've had since that election that the country is not happy with some of the decisions that we've taken in government.

5:54And as Kia said himself today, the question two years ago was who could lead the party into government. The question that we're now facing is who can deliver change at the pace that my constituents expect and who can set out a vision for hope for the future of our country to tackle the threat of reform. Who's that fresh leadership then? I mean, it sounds like from what we've been hearing, Andy Burnham's going to be anointed. Andy connects with voters in a way that perhaps Keir hasn't. And I think that the party will and should unite behind him now so that we can get on with the job of delivering that vision of hope for a better future for the country.

6:27That's the Labour MP for Gloucester, Alex McIntyre there. Well, as I mentioned, Andy Burnham, the man most likely to become Britain's next Prime Minister, has now arrived in London. He's now off to the Houses of Parliament, where he'll be sworn in as an MP once again. Well, our political correspondent, Rob Watson, is by Parliament in Westminster as well. Rob, it's been quite the morning. It has indeed. I mean, it is quite extraordinary to see the demise of Britain's sixth prime minister in 10 years. And although it is extraordinary and dramatic and you have to keep pinching yourself, in another way, it's completely unsurprising because that's the way British politics has become.

7:07We've become a much more volatile system We have MPs that rapidly lose patience with their leaders and voters who also get very angry with their politicians. So dramatic, but not actually after everything that's happened, really. That's surprising. Not surprising, perhaps. And now, of course, it seems like Andy Burnham is the only man in the race, as it were, because, of course, when we heard from Sir Keir Starmer, he did say that he was going to be setting out a timetable for a leadership election, which is the way it of course works here. But now no one else seems to have expressed an interest apart from Mr Burnham.

7:45No, no one yet. And so in case people listening are wondering what on earth happens next, who becomes Prime Minister and when, the timetable that Keir Starmer set out was that people who wanted to be leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, that the nominations for that job should start on the 9th of July and end on the 16th of July. Now, it may well be that absolutely nobody else apart from Andy Burnham puts him for the job. So he gets it and he could be Prime Minister, obviously, around about the 16th, 17th of July. I mean, but it also may be possible if nobody else comes forward, Regini, that the Labour Party's governing body says, look, this is nuts.

8:27I mean, you don't need to keep nominations over. Let's just appoint him much sooner. And why did this all come about in a sense? I mean, we talked about the fact in that report that I did that there was a lot of criticism of his governing, his style of governing. But I mean, is the sense that Andy Burnham or the likely successor can do better? Well, that is the big question. And I think anyone looking in on Britain from the outside would be hugely doubtful because if six previous prime ministers, including Keir Starmer, have been unable to lift that sort of, I don't know, the atmosphere of gloom and pessimism in Britain these last 10 years, I mean, why you have to ask would Andy Burnham do any better than those six?

9:13Indeed. Rob Watson, thank you very much. We will be back with you throughout the course of this hour to unpick what has happened and what comes next. But for the moment, thank you. Well Andy Burnham is not Prime Minister yet but now that the former Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he no longer intends to stand as we were discussing just then he's undeniably the most likely replacement for Keir Starmer. So what does Andy Burnham have which Keir Starmer doesn't? Well Patrick Hurley is the Labour MP for Southport in the north of England close to Makerfield where Andy Burnham just won. How does he feel about today's events?

9:50You know it's a bittersweet day. Keir has, you know, he will leave an overwhelmingly positive legacy as both Labour Party leader and his Prime Minister. But of course, the times move on and politics is a brutal business and I think that what the country needs right now are qualities that maybe Keir hasn't got. He was calm, methodical, diligent and cautious in the last six years in his reign as party leader and it was precisely what we needed in opposition. I think in government what we need is urgency, decisive action and speed and I'm hoping that that's what Andy Burnham's going to give us as the new Prime Minister.

10:34What makes you say that? Country's in a bad state. It's been a bad state for many years after the 2008 crash and after the austerity years and with Brexit and Covid and all of the other shocks that we've had to the country. The country has got such overwhelming challenges that what we need is someone who will not just assess those challenges. It's three years left of this parliament and we need to crack on and make sure that the country, that what the people of the country are telling us they want, that we can give it to them. What you outlined in your earlier answer was the challenge from going to leading a party and then moving into governing a nation.

11:17And do you think Andy Burnham can make that transition? He's incredibly popular, of course. Yes, he's been an MP. Yes, he was the mayor of Greater Manchester. But of course, running government is quite a different business. Yeah, of course. And nobody quite knows until they step through the door at Number 10 Downing Street precisely what sort of prime minister they're going to be. There's no apprenticeship you can really take for that role. But what we can point to is the fact that he's got a record of achievements in government. You know, last time he was in government nationally under Gordon Brown, he was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

11:55And as part of that, he left the NHS with record levels of satisfaction in the public when he left office in 2010. He's been murder great in Manchester for nine years now. and in that role he's had a reputation and a profile far exceeding any of the other regional mayors and a record of success on that local regional basis. I think it pinpoints or it points to the fact that he can walk into Downing Street in hopefully a couple of weeks time with an ability to take that decisive action that the country needs, take what he's done in Manchester, take what he did in his departmental roles back in 2008, 2009 and say he's now ready for the big job and this is what he's going to do with it.

12:37And what if that doesn't work out? Is Labour going to then find another leader? I mean, there are some people, aren't there, Mr Hurley, who feel that Keir Starmer wasn't really given enough time and he's only been two years into the job. There are some who question how many more prime ministers you can have in a short space of time. Yeah, I think that the challenge of running a country in 2026, it's become increasingly difficult. And increasingly difficult, I think, based on the fact that since the 2008 financial crash, we've had long-term economic stagnation in this country. But what I'm hoping is that the decisive action I'm hoping that Andy Burnham will bring to the role will enable GDP growth to get back, maybe not to the pre-2008 trend rate, but certainly to something that approximates that and approximates the fact that we can then have a growing economy that we can spend on improving public services because that's what governments are for, after all, to make people feel better off, to make people feel prosperous, to repair the damage that previous government has done and to get our public services back on an even keel.

13:42That is the Labour MP Patrick Hurley, who is supporting Andy Burnham as the next leader of the Labour Party and therefore the next Prime Minister of the UK. We'll have more on that story, of course, throughout this hour.

14:00You're listening to the BBC World Service and this is NewsHour. As he coming up on the programme as he announced his resignation, the UK's Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, felt he had lots of things to be proud of. 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. But the Labour Party was still not happy.

14:47So where did it all go wrong for Keir Starmer? We will, of course, be unpicking all of that in a bit more detail in 15 minutes.

14:59This is Regine Vaidyanathan with NewsHour coming to you live from the BBC in London. Now let's turn to elections in Colombia where it looks like the South American nation's next president will be the right-wing candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella. Well, he's a lawyer and a businessman. Well, let's speak live now to Dr Christopher Sabatini, the director of the Latin American programme at the Foreign Affairs Institute to Chatham House. He joins me now. Welcome to NewsHour. This was a very close win. Does it surprise you? It does. It's a second round win. De la Speria, the right wing candidate who came out victorious, it looks like, from the second round victory, really only entered with about 44 % of the vote from the first round.

15:47But he was leading by much more. And so it really is, it's about a percentage point under 250 ,000 votes that separate the leftist candidate Cepeda and the very far right outsider candidate de la Speria. So it's going to be a difficult time for him to govern. It was a very polarizing election between two really polar opposites of the, I wouldn't say extreme left, but of the left as well as the extreme right. So it was a bruising election. I mean, he was endorsed by President Trump, wasn't he? Tell us more about him. He's nicknamed the Tiger. Yeah, he's really he's never been a politician before, never served in public office.

16:30He's lived in Miami for large. In fact, he has U.S. citizenship as of 2023. He's really defended as a lawyer some pretty shady characters, including Alex Saab, who was basically the bag man for the former president, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, in a money laundering scheme. So he's a mixed bag. We really don't know what he stands for, except for he wants to get tough on crime. He's promised to address really the number one concern of Colombians, which is crime and violence. And he's promised to build several maximum security prisons. And even in a, you know, basically taking a playing card from the Trump deck, he's saying that he will bomb and use drones to attack basically camps in the interior of the country on their engaging in illicit commerce.

17:22So he's really all in on Trump. In fact, he already has a plan now to visit Mar-a-Lago. This is really part of a wave within the region, more broadly, of Trump adjacent candidates being elected president. It's interesting, isn't it, that you talk about the wider region. What does this say about where left wing politics stands in the region and, of course, the direction of travel? I think, first of all, what we've seen throughout the region is really the center collapse. Party systems have completely evaporated, including Colombia, which had a very robust two party system for almost well over a century.

17:55But also what it means is that citizens really are becoming frustrated with their political class. They're seeking other alternatives. And these outsider candidates who don't come tainted by past associations with political parties have become very, very appealing. But this wave that we're seeing right now of Trump-aligned candidates, I don't think it means this is sort of the direction of future for the long term. We're seeing high levels of electoral volatility, swings from the left to the right, back to the left. I think this will just be another page in that chapter of history in Latin American politics.

18:30So De La Esparrilla will be limited constitutionally to one term. I'm not sure we'll see because his party he put together himself. It only has one deputy in the Chamber of Deputies in the Congress. I'm not sure we're going to see this as becoming sort of a major force in politics over the long term in Colombia. OK, really interesting to talk about that. And of course, the implications for the wider region. Thank you very much for joining us on NewsHour. Dr. Christopher Sabatini from Chatham House.

19:02Now, let's go to France, where the temperature's been soaring.

19:12So much so that the authorities banned alcohol at the Fête de la Musique yesterday. These Parisians had mixed views about that ban. It's true, it's a bit unusual because it's extremely hot. So as soon as it gets a little crowded, we get really hot and it's complicated. I think it's good for people with rather dangerous drinking habits. But of course, the cops should have better things to do than check if someone's got a glass in their hand. So it's pretty stupid, but I think it's mainly a preventative measure. Well, the views of some people there. Well, today is set to be the hottest day yet, with the temperatures rising to 43 degrees Celsius.

19:55And weather forecasters say this extreme weather could end up being as serious as that 2003 heat wave, which claimed nearly 15 ,000 lives. Well, let's speak now to my colleague, Pierre-Antoine Denis, who is a reporter with the BBC News Channel. He is in Nice for us. First of all, Pierre, just how hot is it where you are? It's been very hot. I mean, luckily, the region that I'm in, where I'm from, is in the orange weather warning. So it's not as bad as it has been in Paris. Some of my friends in the capital or in Bordeaux have had very, very high temperatures overnight, difficulties to sleep for many parts of France and many papers and the news channels here are all talking about how to handle that heat, what to do and trying to find solutions.

20:46Basically, everyone sort of clenching a stroll as trying to deal with this heat wave because it is historic in terms of the temperatures and the record of these temperatures, but also because of how early it's coming into the year. We are still in June and you'd mentioned 2003 there, Regini. This was July, August. So there is a fear that this keeps going and we are in for a very, very, very hot summer. I mean, the question is, is France prepared for this kind of intense heat? Definitely. There's definitely more to do and there will be lessons to be drawn from this episode when you're looking at, for instance, the railway provider, SNCF, having to tell people not to travel, having to, trying to tell people to work from home if they can, to tell any vulnerable person not to travel, saying actually the railway system in itself is not ready to sustain that sort of heat on a prolonged period with the tracks.

21:46So you also have that, you have the questions from parliamentary MPs in France wondering whether we should try to bring some specific holidays for these period of time. So this sort of questioning shows how actually France is not really prepared for this. And when we're seeing the temperatures very high in very busy cities like Paris, for instance, with people living in apartments with very limited capabilities in terms of cooling the place down, it really goes to show that France, as much of Europe, in fact, isn't ready for these temperatures. And are we expecting to see similar alcohol bans at other events?

22:24I mean, we heard how people felt about it just then. Not everyone was pleased, were they, Pierre? No, they weren't pleased. And to be fair, I don't think it would be very, very hard to implement. I think what has transpired from last night's events was that the police officers were, yes, patrolling the streets, but making sure that everyone was OK not to try and police everyone with a bottle of beer in their hands. So it doesn't seem like that ban that was trying to kind of harshly put in place and quite steadily, quite rapidly put in place on Sunday, didn't really make any headways and didn't really work.

23:01So whether this will happen across the festival season over the summer, there will be huge lobbying against that, because obviously it's a huge economy that can be made. And so this sort of a ban will definitely be met with skepticism and criticism in France. for various reasons, I would say. So yes, as we've heard from these people in Paris. OK, thank you so much for joining us to bring us up to date on what's happening in France. That's Pierre-Antoine Denis from the BBC News Channel reporting from Nice there. Now, we'll just get more on our main story. The likely contender in that Labour leadership election and therefore most possibly likely to be the next Prime Minister of the UK, Andy Burnham has been speaking to reporters as he arrived in London.

23:48He's reiterated his earlier statement praising Keir Starmer's time in office and confirming he will stand to replace him.

23:59This July, we celebrate America turning 250. And there's one question on every grill. Is your beef actually American? Before you fire up the grill, did you know that more than 85 % of grass-fed beef sold in grocery stores is imported from overseas. That's exactly why I choose Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers delivers a 100 % American meat from local farms and ranches straight to your door. So when the burgers hit the grill and the backyard fills up, you know you're serving meat you can feel proud of. This year, don't just grill American style. Grill American meat. Go to GoodRanchers.com today and start your plan to get free meat for life.

24:40That's GoodRanchers.com. Good Ranchers. American meat delivered. Is the American dream still possible? I'm Asma Khalid, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. One of the most successful exports the United States has ever sold the world is the American dream, that tantalizing promise of a better, freer, richer life. But is it still attainable? I feel like the American dream is alive but not well. For more, listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

25:38that matter most to investors, including policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes and trade, inflation concerns, the Federal Reserve, and how regulatory developments can affect companies, sectors, and even the entire market. Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at schwab.com slash Washington Wise or wherever you listen.