Labour Party leader Keir Starmer who is projected to become Britain’s next Prime Minister, is prepared to quit if his party fails to win the country’s July 4 election.
Asked during a BBC phone-in programme whether he would resign if Labour lost or lost heavily, Starmer said: “Yes.”
A barrister, Starmer has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He became Leader of the Opposition during the Covid pandemic.
Sunak’s Conservative Party is seeking another mandate after fourteen years in power.
People across UK will choose all 650 members of the House of Commons for a term of up to five years. The party that gets a majority in the Commons, either alone or in coalition, will form the next government and its leader will be Prime Minister.
Labour is around 20 percentage points ahead in most opinion polls, and forecast to comfortably win enough parliamentary seats to form the next government. Projections have indicated a landslide victory for Labour that would surpass the one achieved by Tony Blair at the 1997 general election.
For more than 18 months, Labour has maintained a discernible lead in the polls due to public fatigue and disillusionment arising from Sunak’s governance. Sensing the mood of the voters, Starmer has projected Labour as a stable alternative.
In an early campaign message to party members, Starmer said, “Labour will stop the chaos, turn the page and get Britain’s future back.’’ Describing the election as “the fight of our lives”, he saif
“This is the moment we’ve been working towards. We must come together to beat the Tories and deliver a Labour government to change Britain for the better.”
It was on May 22 this year that Rishi Sunak announced he had requested permission from the King to dissolve parliament. He called a general election to be held on July 4, months ahead of when it was expected.
