Overview
- Starmer announced on Tuesday that he will stand down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras and focus on international policy work and campaigning against violence toward women and girls.
- His resignation obliges a by-election in the constituency that has been a long Labour stronghold but where the Greens have made local gains and could run leader Zack Polanski as a high-profile challenger.
- Starmer left the premiership earlier this summer after internal pressure and by-election setbacks and was succeeded by Andy Burnham, who has recently returned to the Commons.
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham is using his early weeks in office to set out plans for greater state control of public services and more powers for local government, and he will face scrutiny in Parliament as this new agenda is tested.
- Labour’s poor local results in Camden in May and the summer’s single-seat contests have shifted political momentum and made the Holborn and St Pancras by-election a key signal of whether the party is recovering or remains vulnerable ahead of future national polls.