Revolving Door in Britain and the Crisis of Governance in the West
By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire. Monday June 22, 2026.
The resignation of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will result in the seventh leader in the United Kingdom in a decade as the working class faces worsening socioeconomic conditions amid a growth in far-right electoral successes and racist violence in the streets.
After months of political defections and electoral defeats on the local level, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation as leader of the ruling Labor Party.
Starmer, who came into office two years ago with a mandate to reverse the 14-year devastating rule by the Conservative Party, has failed to make significant changes which would benefit the majority of the working class and people of color communities throughout the country.
On the morning of June 22, Starmer walked out of 10 Downing Street and declared that he would exit his position while allowing a leadership contest beginning on July 9. It is anticipated that the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, will be the next leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister.
Burnham won a recent by-election in Makerfield in the North of England, coming out ahead of the far-right Reform Party led by Nigel Farage. The Labor Party, after suffering huge defeats by Reform in the most recent local government elections, quickly sought to have him replace Starmer in an effort to salvage the political status of the organization.
Burnham traveled by train from Manchester to Central London on June 22 to be sworn into parliament at the Palace of Westminster. His reception by Labor Members of Parliament (MPs) was enthusiastic when he entered the chambers to be sworn in by the Speaker of the House of Commons. Yet, the question is will this shift in leadership for Labor change the fortunes of the people of the UK who are suffering deteriorating economic conditions?
In an article published by the Morning Star, the daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), it notes that the failure of Starmer requires radical change in order to improve the living conditions of the working class. The British trade union movement has long expressed dissatisfaction with Starmer and his Labor government for its inability to raise wages, improve the conditions within the battered National Health Services (NHS) and raise the levels of anticipation for young people facing massive unemployment and impoverishment.
The Morning Star said on June 22 that: “Unions welcomed Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to quit today but warned that the government needed a radical shift in policies as well as leadership. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called Sir Keir’s move ‘right and honorable,’ adding ‘There is no time to waste, everyday people are literally on their knees. Labor has one last shot to learn from the errors of the last two years. A failure to act will result in a doomsday scenario for Labor. In the short term we need policies that make workers’ lives easier.’ National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede insisted the ‘stakes could not be higher’ and insisted the next prime minister must fix the funding crisis in schools. He said, ‘The country had seen enough of Keir Starmer’s government to know that it is not going to deliver the meaningful change that was promised by Labor two years ago. If we have more of the same from our next prime minister, we risk sleepwalking into the disaster that would be a Reform UK government. Whoever does replace Keir Starmer needs to set Britain on a different economic path and deliver fundamental change.’” (https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-welcome-starmers-departure-and-warn-labour-need-radical-shift-policies)
Starmer Led a Purge of Labor MPs on the Left Charging Them Falsely with Antisemitism and Challenging His Corporate-oriented Agenda
Over the last few years, the Labor Party in Britain has moved to the right by removing many stalwarts who advocated solidarity with Palestine. Britain has been a focal point in opposing the genocide taking place in Gaza and Palestine as a whole.
Demonstrations involving millions were held on a weekly basis as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out its carnage in Gaza after the escalation of the struggle in October 2023. When Starmer and the majority Labor parliament took office two years ago the mass demonstrations against the political, economic and military support to Tel Aviv continued.
Starmer refused to openly denounce the apartheid regime in Occupied Palestine. He would eventually “recognize a Palestinian state” with no real consequences for actual conditions on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank.
The grassroots movement known as Palestine Action has been criminalized by the British state. After the UK Court dismissed the claims that Palestine Action was a terrorist organization, an appeals decision reimposed this designation, making it a criminal offense to even mention the name of the organization.
One of the most egregious actions of the current Labor government was the appointment of Lord Peter Mendelson to the position of UK Ambassador to the United States. Mendelson was a close confidant of deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Mendelson was compelled to resign from his position in Washington due to documents released in the Epstein files which the administration of President Donald Trump sought to suppress. Political pressure from both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate forced the release of many files which were heavily redacted.
After the second ascendancy of Trump to the presidency in early 2025, Starmer ran to the White House carrying an invitation from the British royal family requesting a state visit by the Republican head-of-state. When Trump did visit England, he was largely confined to areas around the royal palace due to mass demonstrations taking place in London against his presence in the country.
Many of his own Labor MPs began to demand Starmer’s resignation. Subsequently, resignations by leading Labor Party cabinet ministers eroded his political base of support. The British press seriously questioned his judgment involving appointments and his inability to resolve fundamental issues within the country.
Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbin has established an alternative grouping called “Your Party.” He along with other Labor MPs formed this party to continue their advocacy for the rights of working people.
According to the Morning Star on June 22, Zara Sultana of Your Party along with the rising Greens, foresaw the collapse of the Starmer government, saying:
“YOUR Party MP Zarah Sultana said ‘good riddance’ to the departing Keir Starmer today.The Coventry South MP, suspended from Labor by Sir Keir for challenging the two-child benefit cap, said that ‘history will judge Keir Starmer as a man who lied his way to the top of the Labor Party.’ She accused him of using that power to evoke Enoch Powell with his ‘island of strangers’ speech, keeping children in poverty, attacking disabled people, scapegoating refugees, stripping back civil liberties, and handing our public services to Palantir. ‘A man who gave the top diplomatic job to the ‘best pal’ of a convicted pedophile, said Israel has the right to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, rolled out the red carpet for Israeli war criminals, and kept the weapons flowing to the Israeli military as it committed genocide. Good riddance,’ she added. Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for ‘a bold change of direction’ after Sir Keir’s departure. He said, ‘Starmer lost the confidence of the country because of his abject failure to challenge the power and wealth of an Establishment which has taken for themselves while leaving the vast majority in a cost-of-living crisis. We are still waiting to see which version of Andy Burnham is going to show up in Downing Street. While he has talked about a change of course, the early indications are not encouraging and suggest more of the same with better communication skills. The time for half measures and sticking plasters is long gone – Burnham must be bold or he will be bust.’” (https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sultana-says-good-riddance-starmer)
Britain and Other Imperialist States Facing the Threat of Fascism
There is a real threat of the imposition of fascism in the UK as exemplified by the rising electoral support for the Reform Party led by Nigel Farage. In the last local government elections, Reform won more seats than any other party.
Manifestations such as the “Unite the Kingdom” rallies have illustrated the rising specter of racist violence and imperialist war. Soon after Starmer took office in 2024, racists attacked residences of migrants demanding that they leave the UK.
In recent weeks in Belfast Northern Ireland, people from Loyalist areas burned vehicles, buses and the homes of people of color. Reform and other right-wing formations are demanding the mass deportation of people from Africa, Latin America and Asia.
These actions mirror events inside the U.S. where state entities such as the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) have conducted raids throughout the country arresting, brutalizing and killing suspected undocumented migrants and those who oppose the administration’s anti-immigrant policies.
In other western industrialized states such as France and Germany, far right parties are growing in popularity. These parties and organizations are being heavily influenced by financiers based in the U.S. who are utilizing the concept of “free speech” to promote racism and violence against people of color and migrants.
These issues will continue until there are broad-based united fronts to reverse the fascist threats. The U.S. and Western Europe will undoubtedly continue to decline under the economic policies which favor the rich at the expense of the working people and nationally oppressed.