Under Starmer, state school education and the National Health Service โ important yardsticks of government performance in Britain โ improved significantly. There was a record drop in immigration, a vexatious issue among white working class Britons as also some Indian-extraction immigrants, and a trigger for the rise of the far right Reform UK party.
Inflation eased but the economy didnโt take off. Unemployment increased and wages didnโt. The cost of living crisis persisted and became a theme.
Starmer was on the verge of pulling off a potential game-changer โ a UK-EU summit, scheduled in July, to discuss a single market on goods trade. The British economy has suffered a devastating loss in trade turnover since Brexit that cannot be compensated by any free trade agreement with other countries or blocs.
Starmer was a safe pair of hands, but he lacked charisma and communication skills. His government failed to transmit its achievements to the British public. After the outcome of last monthโs local and regional elections, the writing was on the wall. A YouGov poll in May 2026 showed 69 per cent viewing Starmer unfavourably.
His MPs realised that with such ratings, Labour was not going to overcome the serious threat from Reform, nor from the Green Party (who had taken away hard left and Muslim votes with its markedly pro-Palestine stance), to win the next election in 2029, if Starmer was retained as prime minister.
So, Andy Burnham, until last week a popular mayor of Greater Manchester in northwest England and now elected to the Commons in a by-election, is odds-on favourite to step into Starmerโs shoes, making him Britainโs seventh prime minister in 10 years.
Weโll learn in due course if the procession of UK prime ministers lengthens before the next general election โ watch this space.
Ashis Rayย was formerly editor-at-large ofย CNN,ย and is the author ofย The Trial that Shook Britain.ย More of his writingย here
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