British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he will resign, after facing an uprising within his center-left Labour Party.

Axar.az reports, citing NBC news, it marks an astonishing fall for a leader who sealed a landslide election victory in 2024, riding a wave of popular discontent against 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule.

Calls for Starmer to quit have intensified since May, when, after just two years in power, he led his party to one of its worst-ever performances in local and regional elections, as Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK made historic gains.

The leader’s key rival within the party is Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who had openly discussed plans to bring a leadership challenge. Burnham won a special election on Thursday for a seat in Parliament, clearing a crucial hurdle for him to mount such a challenge.

Starmer had vowed to fight any contest, but as speculation mounted over the weekend President Donald Trump even weighed in. The prime minister “failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY.”

“I wish him well!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

But Starmer’s political fortunes have taken a hit from a series of bruising scandals, while many of his own lawmakers blamed him for policy missteps that have proved deeply unpopular with the public.

Starmer, 63, had lost two of his key Cabinet ministers in recent weeks as discontent within his party grew. Health Secretary Wes Streeting quit last month and issued a stinging attack on Starmer’s record of indecision, saying at the time he would consider his own leadership bid.

Another blow was dealt this month when Defense Secretary John Healey quit in a dispute over military funding, accusing Starmer of failing to deliver on his public promises on the issue.

Among Starmer’s lingering political headaches has been a damaging scandal over his decision to appoint Labour grandee Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador in December 2024 despite Mandelson’s friendship with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Meanwhile, a series of Starmer’s flagship political projects, from massive investment in net-zero emissions to the rollout of digital ID cards, have ended up dramatically watered down or scrapped entirely — fueling doubts even among some of his allies about his propensity for tactical mistakes and miscalculations.

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