United Kingdom: Keir Starmer exit

Less than two years after his appointment and a historic Labour victory, Keir Starmer is stepping down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His downfall is partly due to the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson, against the backdrop of the Epstein affair, and to his own unpopularity. His Labour rival Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester, is the favourite to become the seventh Prime Minister the United Kingdom has had in a decade.

But the political crisis runs deeper: as elsewhere in Europe, the far right is gaining ground, and Nigel Farage’s party, Reform UK, has just achieved unprecedented results in the local elections. The traditional parties – Labour and the Conservatives – failed to contain the damaging effects of Brexit on British democracy for the last ten years.