Race for Labour Leadership Begins as Starmer Steps Down

Keir Starmer’s resignation has formally triggered the contest for the Labour Party leadership, and the winner will also become prime minister of the United Kingdom. The victor of the primary would be Britain’s seventh prime minister in the past decade, following David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Starmer.

The leading contender is Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who is seen as Starmer’s main political rival. Burnham served as an MP from 2001 to 2017 and held ministerial posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He has twice run for Labour leader and lost, first to Ed Miliband in 2010 and then to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015.

Last week Burnham returned to Parliament after winning the Makerfield constituency in northwest England, a move widely seen as paving the way for a leadership bid. Estimates in Britain say he already has support from at least 200 of Labour’s 403 MPs, and Starmer’s resignation speech even raised the possibility of a party primary. Despite that, British reporting suggests Burnham could be installed as leader and prime minister without a contested race.

Several Labour figures, including former health secretary Wes Streeting and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, had said they might run if Starmer quit, but they may now stay out because of Burnham’s growing popularity. The key question for Jewish communities in Britain and many in Israel is how he would approach Israel after two years of what the article calls hostile policy under Starmer. Burnham has previously backed Israel strongly, calling it a “democracy with a long history of protecting minorities and promoting civil rights,” and saying his first foreign trip would be to Israel. He has also criticized Israel, repeatedly urging recognition of a Palestinian state as a right rather than a gift, and after Hamas’s October 7 massacre he was among the first to call for Israel to stop the fighting in Gaza, while Starmer had not yet done so.