British PM resigns in statement; Andy Burnham touted as successor
Right-wing leader Nigel Farage, who wants to cut immigration and welfare spending, called an election so that the British people can have a say in who will replace Keir Starmer and his ministers. “Britain is broken. We need an election,” he said in a new article timed to the crisis within the Labor Party.
“If Labor thinks they can push another professional politician into No 10, we are facing something else,” Farage said on X after Starmer’s announcement.
This makes sense for Reform when it has an advantage in national polls: it had 24 per cent of the vote in last week’s YouGov poll, ahead of Labor on 19 per cent and the Conservative Party on 19 per cent. Without Australia’s approach of allowing preferences, a first-past-the-post system, this could bring Farage to power.
But the election is unlikely to happen because Labor has 403 seats in the House of Commons and there is no incentive to risk that.
There are question marks over support for Farage, given that he was clearly defeated by Labour’s Andy Burnham in last week’s Makerfield by-election.
But the byelection was not an indicator of future national sentiment because voters knew they could unseat Starmer by electing Burnham. If Burnham becomes prime minister, the dynamic will be very different.
