{"id":328272,"date":"2026-06-23T05:54:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=328272"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:24:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:24:31","slug":"so-long-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=328272","title":{"rendered":"So long, Starmer."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian June 22, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><em>Sir <\/em>Keir Starmer has officially announced his resignation as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\uf6a8 BREAKING: Keir Starmer gets emotional as he resigns as Prime Minister<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I shall spend more time on the most important job. Being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife Vic&#8230; and being best dad I can to my beautiful children, who have been my pride and joy&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3OaOMTqPLQ\">pic.twitter.com\/3OaOMTqPLQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PolitlcsUK\/status\/2068978393983467746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yay, I guess.<\/p>\n<p>There goes our sixth \u201cleader\u201d in ten years, and in comes our seventh.<\/p>\n<p>I know some quarters \u2013 on both right and left \u2013 will be going full Holy Grail\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-328273\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"280\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>But I can\u2019t bring myself to care about what is, at absolute best, a PR exercise.<\/p>\n<p>The only real change is that, moving forward, I will likely be italicizing the word \u201cSir\u201d a lot less.<\/p>\n<p>As always, when there\u2019s a leadership change, people will rush to talk about \u201clegacy\u201d. But Starmer doesn\u2019t have one. He\u2019s just sort of <em>there<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The process that started before he arrived carried one while he was there, and will continue after he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not done anything. He never had the power to do anything and never tried to do anything. The Online Safety Act and Social Media Ban will likely be the things he is most remembered for, but \u2013 again \u2013 they would have happened whether or not he even existed.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s MPs and politicians the world over, really \u2013 <em>\u201cgrocer-mentality boys who like to be photographed getting in and out of Daimlers in Whitehall\u201d<\/em>, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xYAke_z3RVU\">News Benders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They are hood ornaments and hubcaps. Good for brand recognition and covering up the messy bits, but they go where the engine goes, turn in the direction the wheels point, and the car runs just fine without them.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer was always a bizarre choice for a Labour leader \u2013 or any leader really \u2013 being so entirely devoid of presence or charisma, having a knighthood, and looking like a sausage in an ill-fitting polyester suit.<\/p>\n<p>His replacement will be Andy Burnham. Sure, there\u2019ll be a \u201cleadership\u201d election, and eunuch-faced Wes Streeting will push his case, but he will lose. Burnham is clearly the picked man.<\/p>\n<p>(<strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> Between the writing and publishing of this piece, Streeting announced he would not contest the leadership, so Burnham is<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/jun\/22\/andy-burnham-to-stand-to-become-labour-leader-and-uk-prime-minister\"> walking in unopposed<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Burnham is another soulless void, but he\u2019s got a Northern accent and no knighthood, so people may take a little longer to figure out he\u2019s not actually in it for the ordinary man on the street.<\/p>\n<p>In his victory speech following the by-election last week, Burnham called for a \u201cnew kind of politics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>If that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because it was Corbyn\u2019s line when he won the leadership election in 2015. The difference is Corbyn meant it.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why he\u2019s in the political wilderness now, and every single one of the people he humiliated in leadership contests is either in the cabinet or about to become Prime Minister.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what sincerity gets you.<\/p>\n<p><em>Spoiler \u2013 Burnham\u2019s \u201cnew kind of politics\u201d is going to be very like our old politics\u2026but with a Northern accent.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2026\/06\/22\/so-long-starmer\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Burnham is clearly his chosen replacement. Kit Knightly on why we shouldn&#8217;t expect any dramatic changes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":328276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=328272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328277,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328272\/revisions\/328277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}