Keir Starmer to remain MP after quitting as PM amid Labour succession race

London,UPDATED: Jun 24, 2026 21:14 IST

Keir Starmer will remain the Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras after his time as British Prime Minister ends in the coming weeks, Downing Street said on Wednesday. Starmer is currently serving as caretaker prime minister after announcing his resignation as Labour leader, setting in motion the process for the party to choose his successor, who will then replace him at 10 Downing Street.

As the leadership race gathers pace, Starmer is said to have held his first meeting with Andy Burnham, the newly elected MP for Makerfield and the frontrunner for the top job, after promising an “orderly handover of power” in his resignation speech on Monday. A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer wants the next prime minister and the Labour government to succeed.

“He is going to remain an MP,” Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters. “Keir wants the next prime minister to succeed, he wants the Labour government to succeed, and he will do everything within his power to ensure that,” the spokesperson said.

Asked if Starmer would consider taking a Cabinet role if one was offered to him, the spokesperson pointed to remarks he made to ministers at their weekly meeting: “this is the end of my journey, but this is not the end of yours”.

During his first weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Starmer said: “The test for every Prime Minister is handing over the country in a better shape than they found it. I know I can do that.” He added: “I am very proud of every one of our MPs who, with a landslide Labour victory, come from all different backgrounds and different places across the country. We inflicted the biggest loss on the Tories in the history of their party (in the July 2024 general election). We have picked up our party, and we turned it around. We had to address what went wrong, we turned it around, and we won a landslide victory.”

Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Darren Jones, one of Starmer’s closest allies, ruled himself out of the leadership race. “Andy Burnham is going to be the next prime minister. So, the question for me is, well, what would the benefit be to the country and to the party of a leadership contest,” he told reporters. Another possible contender, former armed forces minister Al Carns, said he was considering his position and would need to see Burnham’s policies before he could “make a decision to back him”.

Under Starmer’s timetable, Labour’s Executive Committee will open nominations for the party leadership by July 9. With momentum building behind Burnham, he is likely to be elected unopposed by mid-July, as Starmer prepares to step aside while continuing as an MP.

With PTI Inputs

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