Keir Starmer says family weekend led to intensely personal resignation

London,UPDATED: Jul 4, 2026 17:06 IST

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described his decision to resign as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister as an “intensely personal” one, saying he took it after spending a weekend away with his wife Vic and their children. In his first interview since announcing the move outside 10 Downing Street, Starmer said he would remain a Member of Parliament for his central London seat but would stay quiet on the backbenches to let his successor get on with the job.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday evening, exactly two years after Labour’s landslide general election victory, the 63-year-old said he had wrestled with the decision. “I grappled with what was the best thing to do for me, for the country, for the government,” Starmer said. “In the end it became an intensely personal decision. And that’s why it was a decision taken ultimately when Vic and I were away with the kids.”

The weekend before his June 22 resignation announcement, the Starmer family had been at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s countryside retreat in Buckinghamshire. “We just spent two days together as a family and that’s when I came to my final decision... Taking the decision that your political career is over, it is an intensely personal matter, or at least it was for me,” he said.

Starmer said his successor would face the same international and domestic pressures that marked his shortened time in office. “Whoever is my successor, is going to face the same global conflict. We keep saying, and it’s true, we’re in a more dangerous and volatile world than we’ve been in for probably most of my lifetime. That’s not just a phrase, that’s reality. That’s not going to change. And the domestic challenges aren’t going to change,” he said.

Despite being pushed out in what was effectively an internal coup, Starmer said he held “never had any personal animosity” towards Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to succeed him, and would “do everything I possibly can to make sure” the next government succeeds. “(I will be) keeping my mouth shut, rather than giving constant advice to my successor about what they should be doing,” he said.

The caretaker Prime Minister also said his four years as Labour leader in Opposition before the July 2024 general election were “absolutely core” to his legacy. “The Labour Party arguably could have been lost, but I stepped up as leader and with others we saved the Labour Party,” he said, while acknowledging that he had been removed because Labour MPs no longer believed he was “the right person to take us into the next election.” After an early period of popularity, Starmer faced backlash over controversial decisions and policy U-turns, which deepened unrest among Labour MPs seeking tougher action on the cost-of-living crisis. Burnham is so far the only candidate for the leadership and could be elected unopposed once the process closes on July 16.

Starmer’s interview set out both the personal reasons behind his resignation and his view that the next Labour leader will face the same difficult global and domestic pressures, even as he prepares to continue in Parliament without intervening from the backbenches.

With PTI Inputs

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