Did Keir Starmer have everything wrong from day one?

What’s the story?

Keir Starmer took his moment before Andy Burnham could claim his own.

The Prime Minister announced his resignation on the morning before the newly elected Makerfield MP was sworn into the House of Commons on 22 June 2026.

The announcement comes almost two years after Labour claimed a landslide win in the 2024 general election, saying that entering Downing Street in July that year was one of the proudest moments of his life.

He said he had been told to go by voters, and the party.

"Keir Starmer took to the lectern at 9:30 this morning, and it was precisely to avoid there being this overlap of people asking 'where is the power, who are we looking at, who's in control?'," Emily Maitlis says.

She says if no other Labour MPs come forward to claim a stake as leader, Burnham could be moving into Downing Street within two weeks of winning the Makerfield by-election.

"We've never seen anything like this before," says Lewis Goodall.

"We've never seen someone become an MP on Thursday, and basically become the de facto Prime Minister by Monday.

"The reason Starmer did it today is because he didn't want the sense of humiliation of Burnham getting the train to London and chasing him out of town."

Read more:

Is this the moment it all collapsed for Keir Starmer?

Reform’s Makerfield failure: Why Burnham’s win is such bad news for Nigel Farage

Jess Phillips: ‘Keir Starmer’s government made me feel grateful for crumbs’

'It is clear Keir Starmer loathes Andy Burnham'

Keir Starmer celebrated Andy Burnham's 55% win in Makerfield as a victory for Labour, and insisted he would fight any challenge for leadership after the Manchester by-election was over. A few days later, his mind had been changed by what The News Agents describe as a series of “brutal” conversations” with cabinet members.

Lewis believes his resignation speech was one of dignity and emotion – but ultimately “pretty terse”, but also by celebrating his victories and little more, lacked any suggestion that he might have made mistakes during his time in 10 Downing Street.

"What is clear from his language and his statement is that he blames the Labour Party," Lewis says.

"He blames – and I think clearly loathes – Andy Burnham. It is very revealing that the two men have not spoken this weekend, to try and hash out a deal, or some sort of timetable. That has just not happened."

Starmer's analysis of the situation, he adds, was that "the herd had moved" and there had been "disloyalty" shown to him from party members, and his own government.

"Keir Starmer's analysis and belief is, that if all of this disloyalty hadn't occurred, that he would still be in place, and this is an entirely needless coup," Lewis says.

'First you write a 'fuck you' speech, then you write the real one'

Maitlis says this is not the speech Starmer truly wanted to give.

"There's a moment when you write a speech, and the first version of it is the 'fuck you speech', quite frankly, where you say what's really on your mind, what you really think, how hurt you feel, and how humiliated you feel," she says.

"Then the good friends and hopefully spouses say, 'yeah, you've got that off your chest, rip that up, put it in a drawer, and go and give the dignified speech that you will be happy with when it's replayed endlessly on a loop in the days, weeks, months, and years to come'.

"That's the version that you got from Keir Starmer today."

She says there was no way for him to hold on any longer, when everyone around him was telling him the ground beneath his feet was gone.

"If there's no army behind you, if there's no one backing you, there isn't a viable way forward," she says.

"He just didn't find a way to do the thing that he wanted to do, which was stay in."

Jon Sopel says the scale of Andy Burnham’s win in Makerfield, where he won 55% of the vote at a time when Labour are being pounded in the polls across the country, was not the sound of a victory bell for Starmer as he claimed at the time, but the chimes of doom spelling the end of his time in power.

Did Starmer have everything wrong from day one?

The 2025 Labour majority was huge. Labour won 411 of a possible 650 constituencies across the UK, giving Starmer a powerful mandate – or so he believed – to reshape, and restore, the UK.

But even at the time, there was the suggestion that Labour didn't win because people liked the party, its policies or its leader – voters were simply sick of successive, failing Tory governments.

"Starmer's basic analysis was that the Tories were feckless, reckless, and useless, and he, Keir Starmer, being competent would fix our problems," Lewis says.

"But the extent of the malaise in British politics was such that being competent was a necessary condition to fix British politics, but it was not a sufficient condition.

"He had to have a political program of his own, and not only did he not have one, I don't think he ever really wanted one."

Of course politics has never been an easy game, but what's changed in the years since Brexit, and the last Labour government, is the intensity with which it is played.

"Politics has always been a brutal contact sport," says Jon.

"I think what may have changed is the speed with which the sport happens.

"It was a boxing match which was fought over 15 rounds. Now it's smash bang wallop in the first round. If you're not standing, you're out."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.