“To my wife and children, I love you. Goodbye!” With that, Keir Starmer ended his last session at the despatch box as prime minister, and Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs rose to applaud him out of the chamber.
It was his final prime minister’s questions, held on Wednesday afternoon. He traded friendly barbs with opposition leader Kemi Badenoch, then took the last question from a close friend, Labour MP Carolyn Harris. Harris struggled to keep her composure. Few people, she said, believed he could make the changes Labour needed when he became leader in 2020. “But today, because of his service and his leadership, children are growing up in a fairer Britain,” she said, her voice breaking. “We stand tall on the world stage.”
Starmer himself looked entirely composed as he thanked her for her friendship.
His closing words were measured. “Every prime minister knows when they take up the torch that the day will come when they have to pass it on,” he said. “That day has come for me. This is the end of my political journey.” He pointed to the swing from historic defeat in 2019 to historic victory in 2024, and said that after two years in government he leaves the country in better shape than he found it. To those in the gallery whose lives Labour has changed, he said, “you’re the reason I came into politics.”
Behind him sat Chancellor Rachel Reeves, an ally widely expected to lose her job under his successor, Andy Burnham. HuffPost UK described her as downtrodden and close to tears.
Emotion spread beyond the chamber. According to Patrick Maguire of The Times, some ministers wept when Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy paid tribute to Starmer at his final cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
How the leadership changed hands
Starmer’s exit comes two months after Labour’s disastrous showing in the May elections in England, Scotland and Wales. Labour MPs called on him to resign, which opened the way for Burnham, then Greater Manchester mayor, to return to the Commons. Burnham won the Makerfield by-election comfortably last month, and Starmer’s resignation followed.
Burnham will be crowned Labour leader on Friday and is set to receive the keys to Downing Street on Monday. Starmer returns to the backbenches.
