{"id":587,"date":"2026-06-22T21:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=587"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:36:55","slug":"keir-starmer-resigns-leaving-legacy-of-persecuting-palestine-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=587","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer Resigns, Leaving Legacy of Persecuting Palestine Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Read more Iran Demonstrates Its Leverage With Strait of Hormuz in Negotiations With US<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

U.K. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, after just 23 months as prime minister and a rapid decline in popularity. <\/p>\n

Under Starmer\u2019s leadership, the Labour Party suffered repeated and record defeats in local elections to the right-wing Reform Party. Starmer\u2019s rapid unpopularity rested on his austerity policies and, among the left, his repression of Palestine solidarity activists. <\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s likely successor is Andy Burnham, previously the mayor of Greater Manchester, who won a parliamentary by-election on Thursday that made Starmer\u2019s resignation almost inevitable. Many in Labour understood Burnham\u2019s by-election win to mean that the candidate has a higher chance of moving beyond Labour\u2019s losses to Reform. <\/p>\n

Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, considered Burnham\u2019s main rival, said that he will back Burnham. But critics are not optimistic that the change-over will bring an end to Labour\u2019s crisis. <\/p>\n

Charlie Hore, a socialist activist in the U.K., told Truthout<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Starmer won in 2024 by promising change, and then repeatedly kicked Labour\u2019s supporters in the teeth. It\u2019s hard to remember the last time that a government lost so much support and respect so quickly. Why? Take your pick \u2013 taking winter fuel allowances from pensioners; keeping the hated two-child cap on benefits; pandering to the racist right over migration and refugees; Peter Mandelson; supporting the genocide in Gaza; and suspending Labour MPs who opposed any of this.<\/p>\n

The cutting of pensioners\u2019 winter fuel allowances less than a month after Starmer\u2019s election marked an initial drop-off of widespread support in a short tenure defined by reversals of promises. Starmer\u2019s austerity measures added to a longstanding cost-of-living crisis in the U.K. <\/p>\n

Starmer also consistently refused to acknowledge Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza, instead overseeing the ban on Palestine Action for its nonviolent direct action against Israeli arms factories. Starmer\u2019s government designated Palestine Action \u2013 a group of mostly young activists demanding an end to U.K. complicity in the genocide \u2013 as a terrorist organization in July 2025, carrying out mass arrests, and appealing the U.K. High Court to keep the terrorism proscription in place just this year. <\/p>\n

Read more Judge Orders Palestine Activist Released From ICE Jail Following Public Pressure<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut while Starmer\u2019s government was vicious and mean-spirited, it was also weak, incompetent, and accident-prone,\u201d Hore explained. \u201cFor months now the only thing saving Starmer was the lack of a credible alternative. Burnham\u2019s appeal is that he\u2019s not a mediocrity like Starmer, but Labour\u2019s crisis is so deep that it\u2019s difficult to see him saving them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Commenting on Friday, U.K. historian D.K. Renton wrote of Burnham that \u201cTaking over Labour may [be] easy but governing he\u2019ll find harder.\u201d He also suggested that Burnham would have a difficult time replicating his local victory and changing the tide of increasing losses to the right-wing Reform party in local elections over the coming years. <\/p>\n

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said in an interview on Sky News <\/em>on Saturday that Burnham\u2019s \u201cbasic economic strategy and views\u2026 seem to me to be accepting too much of the austerity that we\u2019ve had imposed upon us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Burnham has also faced criticism for saying that he will retain Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has called for an end to permanent refugee status in the U.K. and enforced the ban on Palestine Action. <\/p>\n

Though Burnham called for a ceasefire in Gaza beginning in October 2023, he has, like Starmer, refused to call Israel\u2019s actions a genocide. He has remained a member of Labour Friends of Israel and called the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement \u201cspiteful.\u201d <\/p>\n

Starmer will remain caretaker prime minister until the next Labour leader is selected, by September at the latest. <\/p>\n

Corbyn wrote on X after Starmer\u2019s resignation: \u201cKeir Starmer could have ended child poverty, homelessness and the grotesque levels of inequality in this country. Instead, he abandoned those in need, destroyed our civil liberties and facilitated genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more United Auto Workers Vote to Divest from Israel in Historic Victory<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to remember the last time that a government lost so much support and respect so quickly,\u201d said one activist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nKeir Starmer Resigns, Leaving Legacy of Persecuting Palestine Activists - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=587\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keir Starmer Resigns, Leaving Legacy of Persecuting Palestine Activists - 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