Labour's 2024 landslide ending 14 years of Conservative rule (2024)
Labour won 411 seats in the July 2024 general election
Prime Ministers · 21st century
Keir Starmer
1962– · British
Labour
In office: 2024–2026
Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights barrister and Director of Public Prosecutions, led Labour to a landslide in July 2024, ending 14 years of Conservative government. His premiership saw the Chagos Islands agreement, a UK–India trade deal, a reset of relations with the EU and British recognition of the State of Palestine. After heavy losses in the May 2026 local elections he resigned as Labour leader in June 2026 and was succeeded as prime minister by Andy Burnham on 20 July 2026. He stood down as an MP in September 2026.
How to spot them
- ▸Former Director of Public Prosecutions (2008–2013); knighted in 2014
- ▸Won the July 2024 landslide with 411 Labour seats
- ▸MP for Holborn and St Pancras; an Arsenal supporter
- ▸Son of a toolmaker and a nurse, a line he often repeated
- ▸Succeeded by Andy Burnham in July 2026
In office
Means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment (2024)
Early, unpopular cut restricting the payment to pensioners on pension credit, later partly reversed
Agreement to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius (2025)
Treaty keeping the Diego Garcia military base on a long lease
UK recognition of the State of Palestine (2025)
Announced in September 2025, alongside Canada and Australia
Sacking Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington (2025)
Dismissed over his links with Jeffrey Epstein
The 'coalition of the willing' for Ukraine (2025)
Led with Emmanuel Macron to plan security guarantees for Ukraine
Key ideas
- Set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean energy company
- Signed a free trade agreement with India (2025) and held the first UK–EU summit since Brexit (2025)
- Resigned as Labour leader on 22 June 2026 after the May 2026 local elections and ministerial resignations
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in Southwark, London, in 1962; grew up in Oxted, Surrey, and attended Reigate Grammar School
- •Studied law at the University of Leeds and St Edmund Hall, Oxford
- •Worked pro bono for the defendants in the McLibel case
- •Director of Public Prosecutions 2008–2013; made KCB in 2014
- •MP for Holborn and St Pancras 2015–2026; Labour leader 2020–2026
- •Widely reported to be named after Keir Hardie, Labour's first parliamentary leader
- •Married to Victoria Starmer; they have two children
- •Announced on 1 September 2026 that he was leaving Parliament to focus on international affairs
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