This is no no-fault eviction
Much will be written , obituary style, about the departure of Keir Starmer from Downing Street. For a PM to be removed so shortly after winning a massive majority is unusual but you don't have to be Inspector Clouseau to detect where and from when the rot began.
Despite winning 412 seats in the 2024 General election the foundations on which the victory was won was extremely thin. In the 2019 General Election Labour's Jeremy Corbyn won more votes than did Starmer 5 years later. Whilst many Labour MPs are grateful to Starmer for their seats their gratitude does not unconditionally extend many months after the initial victory. The new Labour MPs rather like their new jobs and their ambition is to keep them.
I have been in politics for over 50 years and I have seen many Governments come and go but the Starmer Government got off to a rocky start and then those thin foundations, I referred to earlier, began to crack badly. Even free breakfast clubs and the removal of the two child benefit limit as Keir's legacy is dwarfed by incompetence, greed, sleight of hand and economy with the factuals. The Starmer honeymoon faded as he entered Downing Street and the marriage soured with each passing day.
Keir was soon targetted as receiving thousands of pounds of free clothes and designer glasses from his mate ,the rather wealthy, Lord Ali. The image of the clothes grab around Jermyn Street and the grasping of free tickets to football games and pop concerts did not contrast well with money being immediately syphoned from pensioners with the ending of the winter fuel payments for millions of the elderly.
Broken promises of conducting Government at a higher level to previous Tory administrations soon looked more threadbare than the Treasury coffers. The Starmer promises of economic growth and no new taxes were soon replaced with the mantra of the £22 billion black hole. Irrespective of caving in to inflation busting pay increases to public sector workers the Chancellor had to claw back money from hard working families to plug her own spending spree. The Government refused to tackle the burgeoning benefits bill but rather preferred to rinse those who set their alarm clocks each day in order to work to pay their own household bills.
The benefits bill was outstripping the tax take and so borrowing was on the up whilst growth was being hammered. Thousands of wealthy people left the UK on jets whilst small boats continued to bring new illegal asylum seekers by their thousands. Alarm clock Britain looked on in dismay as hotels and houses of multiple occupancy were filled with illegals and the cost of accommodating them ran into billions.
The Chancellor soon turned on farmers and small businesses with her inheritance tax bombshell in her budget. The farmers soon took to the streets of Whitehall and new labour MPs representing rural areas for the first time sided with Rachel Reeves over hard working decent farmers. Farmers are used too handling manure for a living but having a new inheritance tax imposed on them within weeks of being courted by Starmer was too much bullshit for even them to handle.
The hospitality industry was also on the Reeves hit list with hikes in employers national insurance and increases in the minimum wage. Publicans felt badly let down by a PM who promised no increase in national insurance. This was either a downright lie or calculated deception but either way it broke many pubs who simply called last orders. Unemployment started to increase and the tax take took a hammering. Growth was sacrificed in the face of competing spiraling spending demands.
Soon waspi women ,who had been given the impression that they would be looked after, ended up on the sacrificial altar. The Government gave every appearance of having no shame in breaking promises to millions of people who had put their hope in Starmer.
Controversy continued with David Lammy announcing that jury trials were to be scrapped in many cases in order to eradicate the court backlog. Lammy had only a couple of years earlier publicly attacked the Tories for even thinking about such a move during covid. The stench of hypocrisy filled nostrils in every part of the country and some Labour MPs were in open revolt.
Hypocrisy was also detected in the refusal by the Government to have a national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal. This stupid decision was reversed when it was recommended by Baroness Casey that there should be a full inquiry. Despite the flip flopping by Starmer there remains much concern over the scope and independence of the inquiry. Many victims felt badly let down by how they were being treated by a Government which apparently prioritised community cohesion in certain parts of the UK over bringing justice to the victims.
Labour MPs were becoming bolder as they were prepared to disobey their whips. 7 Labour MPs lost the whip when they supported that the 2 child cap on benefits be lifted against a 3 line whip. To rub salt in the wound of those who buckled to their whips instructions to vote against this measure the Government flip flopped to adopt this as their official policy.
The sackings and resignations became as much the style of Starmer's administration as was the flip flopping of his decisions. Lest we forget- Andrew Gwynne, Sue Gray, Louise Haigh, Tulip Siddiq, Angela Rayner, Annalise Dodds, Sir Chris Womald, Sir Ollie Robbins, Morgan McSweeney (of the missing mobile saga) , Tim Allen, Jess Phillips, John Healey, Al Carns. The busses kept coming and either you threw yourself under one of them or you were quickly despatched. The biggest story was the appointment and sacking of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA. Dame Emily Thornbery, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, could barely conceal her joy as she questioned her witnesses laying bare the machinations of a Government without a compass or even a weather vane.
Kemi Badenoch's humble address to reveal all the texts between various interested parties threw up the nature of distrust between those supposedly on the same side. Pat McFadden's damning text was a brutal torch shining on the grotesque priorities of those in Government when he revealed that all Labour MPs talked about was who they were going to tax next to pay for benefits for others.
This brutal truth laid badly next to a Government that put defending the country as their number one priority ,except, of course, when it came to spending. Starmer sided with Reeves in order to tell John Healey and Al Carns that the war chest didn't have sufficient funds to pay for a war and Reeves had locked it shut just in case!
There was also the strange case of the Chagos Islands where the Government was able to find £35 billion to give to Mauritius to take this overseas territory off the hands of the UK. Starmer was ridiculed by U.S. President Trump who failed to back the move and even talked about buying the Islands himself. The Chagos bill was quietly shelved. Huge questions were raised about the involvement of Starmer's mate and Attorney General, Lord Hermer, in pushing this absurd give away and lease back arrangement.
Local election results and elections in Wales and Scotland were delivering their own verdicts. It was no surprise that Starmer tried to block local elections in England for millions of people only to flip flop on that when he took legal advice. Labour even lost their leader, Eluned Morgan, in Wales, and Scotland's leader, Anas Sarwar, had already called for Starmer to go. The Caerphilly Senedd by election result was further proof that Starmer was toxic with their candidate finishing third, behind Plaid and Reform. This was a seat where they used to weigh the Labour majority and now all they could manage was 11% of the total share of the vote.
Starmer knew he was up against competing rivals when Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary. Earlier Starmer led the charge against another rival, the King of the north, Andy Burnham, from being allowed to run for the Gorton and Denton by-election. This otherwise safe Labour seat saw the Greens top the poll, with Reform second and Labour finishing third.
The 18th of June saw 3 more by elections which provided 3 more nails for Starmer's political coffin. Makerfield was created by Josh Simons who resigned as the Labour MP there. He resigned to effectively create the vehicle for Andy Burnham to re-represent himself as the candidate and saviour of the Labour Party. Keir let it be known that he would not stand in the way of Andy getting the nomination.
Two other by elections in Scotland provided grim reading for all Labour MPs particularly in Aberdeen South where Kemi Badenoch visited 3 times to push the message of "drill baby drill" in the North Sea. Starmer was lured by the mad obsession of Ed Miliband's net zero policy to stop all new oil and gas exploration and drilling in the North Sea whilst buying oil and gas from Norway who were effectively operating in the same fields. Starmer would prefer to buy oil from Russia, the aggressor in Ukraine, than drill our own reserves which would effectively give money to Putin to carry on his illegal war against Ukraine.
The Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election saw the Labour Party relegated to 4th place behind the SNP, Tories and reform. This is beyond chilling for any Labour MP with even safe large majorities. Starmer was toxic and others in the party were paying a heavy price with defeat after defeat.
It was the Makerfield by election that changed everything with Andy Burnham winning just shy of 55% of the vote on an increased turnout compared to 2 years earlier. The slogan for Andy might well have been Vote Labour and get rid of Keir!!! I came across tories, when I was canvassing there, who were voting for Andy to stop Reform and Andy's spectacular victory was the starting gun for the Labour Leadership.
Keir's resignation today was the next logical step. Even President Trump announced Keir's resignation 24 hours before he was able to deliver it from Downing Street. A final humiliation by President Trump in Starmer's last few political hours as Prime Minister.
Wes Streeting has announced his support for Andy Burnham which comes as little surprise. I expect a big job for Wes in Burnham's cabinet along with a peerage for Simons.
Whoever wins the Labour leadership election, if there is one, will have little time to bed in before their first big test. Burnham's victory could present him with his first headache as PM should he win the crown. The Manchester Mayoralty is now vacant and the by election is only weeks away. Andy is popular up north but the magnifying glass will truly be upon him. The fact that Andy is not clothed by Lord Ali's largesse, as is clear for all to see, will go in his favour. What he does in his first few weeks will set the tone for the remainder of his premiership. After all Keir set the tone at the beginning of his and he has now paid the ultimate price.
Stamer's legacy will be all of the above. He failed on so many fronts and the blame lies squarely with him. He leaves Downing Street with the dubious achievement of being the shortest serving Labour PM in history including Ramsay MacDonald who managed to salvage his record by being returned to power in 1929 after a short stint in 1924.
All political careers end in tears they say....but for "not here Keir", "free gear Keir", "two tier Keir" the pain must be acute. He only has himself to blame.
Nigel Evans
22nd June 2026