That was Britain’s chaotic decade

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• Since Brexit, British politics has been marked by instability.
• The successor to the now-resigned Keir Starmer will be the seventh head of government in just seven years.
• Starmer had explicitly taken office with the promise to end the “chaos” caused by constant changes in government.

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday due to a lack of support within his Labour Party. His party colleague Andy Burnham is already in the running for the position at 10 Downing Street. Burnham would then be the seventh head of government in ten years.

Andy Burnham Wants to Succeed Keir Starmer

Now the “King of the North” is setting his sights on Downing Street

An overview of a politically chaotic decade in the United Kingdom:

Conservative David Cameron wanted to end the decades-long debate over Britain’s EU membership with a referendum—and personally campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union. The British people then voted by a majority in favor of Brexit in June 2016, prompting Cameron to resign.

Cameron’s successor and fellow party member, Theresa May, took over the Brexit negotiations with the EU. She called a snap election in 2017—hoping to secure political backing. But her move backfired. Although the Conservative Party emerged as the largest party, it did not have a governing majority. The Brexit deal negotiated by May failed in the House of Commons. When the Conservatives then suffered a painful defeat in the European Parliament elections in May 2019, May resigned.

May’s successor was Boris Johnson, the longtime mayor of London. He had a reputation for being a maverick. But in December 2019, he led the Tories to a decisive victory in the general election. Afterward, Johnson became a crisis prime minister: he had to steer the UK through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also steered the country through its formal exit from the EU at the end of January 2020 and the transition period until early 2021. Among other things, Johnson stumbled over violations of COVID-19 rules during parties held at his official residence. He eventually resigned.

Johnson’s Conservative successor, Liz Truss, proved that things could get even more chaotic. Just a few days after taking office, she unveiled an economic plan consisting of massive, debt-financed relief measures and tax cuts—and triggered panic on the financial markets. The Conservatives withdrew their support. Truss resigned after only 49 days—the shortest tenure of any prime minister in British history.

Truss’s successor, Rishi Sunak, restored some stability to Downing Street starting in October 2022. However, the prime minister, who is of Indian descent, was unable to end the internal strife within the Conservative Party. His approval ratings were modest. During the tenure of the wealthy former investment banker, large segments of the population suffered from a massive increase in energy prices, and many viewed Sunak as being out of touch with the public. In the July 2024 general election, with Sunak as their lead candidate, the Conservatives were defeated for the first time in 14 years.

After just two years in office

This is why British Prime Minister Starmer failed

The social-democratic Labour Party won a landslide majority in the election. The new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, promised to end the “chaos” caused by constant changes in government. But his popularity quickly plummeted. Plans to eliminate the heating allowance for senior citizens sparked a storm of protest, forcing Starmer to backtrack. Later, he was hurt by the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson, whom he had appointed as ambassador to Washington and who had maintained close ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Following a debacle for Labour in the local and regional elections in May and growing pressure from within the party, Starmer was forced to resign.