By Arun Srivastava
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s exit was forced by a massive mutiny, spearheaded by the leftist and Marxist factions within his Labour Party as his tenure was defined by a decisive shift to the political right and the systematic abandoning of the party’s socialist base. Rightist forces who were his last hope to bail him out of the crisis, did not shield him and refused to create a political scenario in his favour. On the contrary, conservative and right-wing figures actively criticized his administration’s military spending and immigration policies, offering no political cover as his premiership collapsed. The Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns resigned just prior to Starmer’s resignation.
Rather than protecting him, the Conservative opposition relentlessly attacked Starmer, claiming his policies reduced military readiness and directly weakened the country’s national security. It was for pleasing these forces Starmer had even extended support to US President Donald Trump in his attack against Iran. Starmer did not bother to ponder about the consequences of his action and its impact on the UK allies. What a bad luck while Starmer extended support to Donald, the US President publicly predicted Starmer’s exit, signalling a lack of international support from right-wing leadership overseas. While the UK declined to join initial offensive military strikes, Starmer eventually allowed US forces limited use of British bases.
Starmer is now left with the option of nowhere to go. Through his action to identify with the rightist forces, he had endangered the leftist and socialist forces, in Labour Party and unfortunately for him even the rightists abandoned him.. While his shift to the right alienated his core progressive base, his decisions on fiscal policy, such as the contentious U-turn on cutting the winter fuel allowance, drew severe backlash from voters and left-wing party members.
Starmer abandoned socialist ideas out of a “lust for power”. Critics and former left-wing allies argue that Starmer systematically dismantled the platform he ran on during his 2020 Labour leadership campaign. This involved dropping pledges to nationalize utility companies, abolish university tuition fees, and increase corporate taxes. His decision to tighten control over candidate selections, block former leader Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour MP, and distance the party from core left-wing factions is viewed as an opportunistic move to make the party palatable to conservative voters and the establishment. He fed a wrong argument to the labour members that the ideological shift was necessary and strategy to rescue the Labour Party from its worst defeat in decades (in 2019) and make it an electable force.
Later developments proved that he was resorting to rightist principles to justify his action. The debate escalated throughout his tenure as Prime Minister, leaving a lingering divide within the UK Labour movement. His combining economic stagnation, policy missteps, and inability to project a clear vision resulted in severe political damage to the Labour Party. In recent years the paid membership dropped below 250,000. This is a massive decline from its peak of over 560,000 members during the late 2010s.The mass exodus of members—which fuelled intense internal party rebellions, major losses in local elections, and ultimately the resignation of Keir Starmer on 22 June 2026—is driven by several key factors. Under Starmer, the party deliberately shifted away from the left-wing policies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The suspension of Corbyn and the removal of various left-wing figures deeply alienated the party’s traditional socialist base. Many members who originally joined during the “Corbyn surge” felt unwelcome and chose to cancel their paid memberships. Labour faced immense backlash for proposing cuts to winter fuel payments and child benefits. Although some cuts were walked back after a revolt by over 120 Labour MPs.
Starmer throwing support behind US president Donald Trump projected him as an associate of rightist forces. Party leadership’s initial refusal to back an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war caused a severe fracture. Tens of thousands of members resigned in protest over what they viewed as a weak moral stance on the humanitarian crisis. As a result of his ambivalent stand on issues of public interest, in May 2026 local elections, nearly 22% of former Labour voters switched to the Green Party. Disillusioned working-class members frustrated by the cost-of-living crisis and immigration have pivoted to the populist right. Reform UK. Even the new far right party claimed its paid membership surpassed Labour’s falling figures. Without a grassroots base, Labour suffered a historic drubbing in the May 2026 local elections—losing over 1,400 seats and control of Wales—culminating in the collapse of Starmer’s leadership
Starmer’s main mission was to turn the Labour Party into the new Conservative Party. Oliver Eagleton, author of The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right says; “As the Conservatives rebranded themselves as a populist party appealing to the working class during Brexit under Boris Johnson, the centre ground was vacated, and Starmer “pledged to occupy that centre ground and consolidate the state”. He was out to dilute the ideals of Labour Party, which was unacceptable to large followers and members of the party.
Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters were basically opposed to any such move. Corbyn and Starmer represent the two contrasting ideological factions of the modern British Labour Party. Their relationship shifted dramatically from a shared frontbench to open political warfare. Starmer had served as the Shadow Brexit Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership from 2016 to 2020, despite participating in a mass frontbench resignation against Corbyn in 2016. Corbyn did not play a direct internal role in forcing Keir Starmer’s resignation, but his ideological legacy and persistent outside pressure significantly shaped the political environment that led to it.
Though Jeremy was forced to exit from Labour, the two Leftist organisations Collective and Momentum carried forward his mission. They hastened up remove Starmer drive following Labour losing over 1,000 council seats in the May 2026 local elections: the catalyst for the internal party coup against Starmer. The new PM will take over in September this year. Andy Burnham is the frontrunner in the race but in the next two months, the Labour Party MPs as also regional leaders will be debating the real issues which should be impacting the contestants for the PM position. Can Burnham as PM rejuvenate the Labour Party? That is the big question. (IPA Service)
