Britons cautiously optimistic after PM Keir Starmer’s resignation

LONDON – Britons on June 22 seemed to welcome the news that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was stepping down, but warned that many challenges lay ahead for his likely successor Andy Burnham.

“I am not surprised that the Prime Minister has resigned. I am sure, for all the right reasons, it has come as a great relief to many people,” said lawyer Alan Collins, rushing to a meeting in his London office. “It’s good news for the country. Because the country has got so many challenges and problems that need addressing, and they are not being met.”

According to a survey of 6,000 people released on June 22, 62 per cent of Britons agree.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, is eyed as the likely candidate to succeed Starmer, perhaps as early as mid-July.

Comfortably elected in a by-election in north-west Makerfield on May 18, he was sworn in as an MP on the afternoon of June 22.

He received a hero’s welcome from his Labour colleagues in the House of Commons, just hours after Starmer said he was resigning, setting out a timetable for candidates to put themselves forward as the next Labour leader.

If Burnham becomes the next prime minister and “is prepared to meet the challenges that this country faces head on, then maybe he has got a chance”, said Collins.

“If he doesn’t, and it is a repeat of what we have had for the last couple of years, then it will be a missed opportunity.”

There was cautious optimism too in Manchester, where Burnham, 56, has spent the last nine years as mayor after leaving Parliament in 2017.

“I am over the moon for Andy Burnham,” said care-support worker Angela Helliwell, 53, but warned that people needed to see the change they had voted for by electing Labour in 2024 and ending 14 years of Conservative rule.

“So, what Andy has done as Greater Manchester mayor, which a lot of people don’t know outside of Greater Manchester, if any of that can be replicated across the country, then that would be brilliant.”

Financial services worker Louis Marks, 30, agreed that change was needed.

“You know, the economy is probably in the worst state it has been in, in my lifetime,” he told AFP. “People are struggling to pay bills.”

He worried that if within some months, “people aren’t feeling any change, people obviously might not be satisfied”.

“And we are going to just go for that cycle again of loads of prime ministers.”

Burnham vowed after his election victory in Makerfield that he would put the region at the heart of his policies in Westminster, and vowed to bring down people’s bills, especially for energy and water.

“He’s off to a really good start with Manchester, and it’d be great if he could continue it in a sort of broader, country-wide approach,” said 23-year-old engineer Aaron Wear.

“But it just depends on how he manages things.”

If Burnham becomes prime minister, there are many big issues waiting at No. 10 Downing Street, from the conflict in Ukraine and US-Israel war on Iran to the ailing global economy.

“I think that no one is happy with the way that things are in the government. And things feel rubbish,” said medical student Phoebe Plugge-Porter, 28, in London.

“What I worry about is the rise of Reform,” she said, referring to the anti-immigrant party which is polling ahead of Labour in national surveys.

“I think Andy Burnham is the person I want,” she added. AFP