Keir Starmer had barely finished speaking when the next argument started. “We at Reform demand a general election,” Nigel Farage said on Monday, hours after the prime minister announced he would resign.
Farage did not stop at the demand. “Britain is broken,” he went on. “Six prime ministers in seven years should convince you of that fact. We are ready for a general election, and I suspect many of you, too, are ready for a general election.”
How Starmer is leaving
Party officials had said Labour was converging on the view that Starmer should step aside, and he announced the decision earlier that day. He will remain prime minister until a successor is chosen, which he said would allow an orderly handover. His statement said the King had been told, and that he would ask Labour’s National Executive Committee to start the leadership contest. Nominations are expected in July, and a new leader should be in place before Parliament returns in September.
Starmer said he accepted the party’s judgment “with good grace” and called the decision one made in the national interest.
His position had weakened after a decisive by-election win for Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, who is seen as a likely contender and has built momentum inside parts of Labour. Burnham confirmed on Monday that he will seek the leadership. Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, said he would back Burnham rather than stand himself.
Starmer’s time in Downing Street has been marked by government U-turns and a run of scandals. They include the fallout over his former US ambassador’s links to Jeffrey Epstein and the ‘two-tier’ policing row that followed the murder of Henry Nowak. US President Donald Trump had weighed in a day earlier, writing that Starmer “failed badly” on immigration and energy.
Why Farage says a vote is owed
In a video posted soon after the announcement, Farage said the public had “simply had enough of political parties chopping and changing their leaders.” A Substack essay the same day went further. He claimed responsibility for the downfall and described Starmer as “the most incompetent Prime Minister this country has ever had the misfortune of having.”
Replacing the prime minister without a ballot, Farage wrote, “is not a fair deal for the British people.” He added that Labour voters in 2024 “wanted to see the Tories thrown out of power,” and he asked whether they wanted the same game of musical chairs repeated.
His case has a hole in it, which is how the system works. A governing party that keeps its majority in the Commons may change leader, and prime minister, with no national vote. Britain does not need to hold one before 2029. Opposition parties are leaning on Labour to seek a fresh mandate anyway.
Sources
- Farage demands immediate election after Starmer's resignation – Wake Up Singapore
- Nigel Farage Demands Snap Election, Calls U.K. 'Banana Republic'
