Sir Keir Starmer Resigns as PM: A Review of His Tenure

After losing the confidence of his MPs and key members of his cabinet, Sir Keir Starmer appeared outside Downing Street on Monday to announce his resignation as prime minister. BBC Verify looks at the record of his time in government in key areas from immigration to energy bills since he took office in July 2024.

In August 2024, just a month after taking office, a YouGov poll suggested that only 36% of people thought Sir Keir was doing well as prime minister and 43% said he was doing badly, giving him a net popularity rating of minus 7. This month 74% said he was doing badly, versus 18% who thought he was doing well, suggesting his net popularity had slipped to minus 56.

Labour's manifesto pledged "to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7", made up of the US, the UK, Japan, France, Italy, Germany and Canada. Between the second quarter of 2024 - just before Labour came to power - and the first quarter of 2026 data from the OECD suggests that the UK economy grew by 2.3% in total, faster than the rest of the G7, apart from the US which grew by 3.7% over that same period. And the UK economy did register the fastest growth among the G7 nations in the first quarter of 2026, when it expanded by 0.6%. But most forecasters do not expect this performance to last, partly because of the energy shock from the US conflict with Iran.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) latest forecast suggests UK GDP growth over 2026 as a whole will fall to 0.8% in 2026, which would be lower than the forecast for the US (2.3%), Canada (1.5%) and France (0.9%).

Last year's total was the second highest after 2022's peak under the previous Conservative government and total crossings under his premiership have passed the milestone of 200,000 since 2018. The number of crossings detected so far in 2026 is down 41% on the same period in 2025.

In the most recent official estimates for 2025 net migration was 171,000, down 48% over the previous year and down from a peak annual rate of 944,000 in 2023, under the Conservatives.

On health Sir Keir pledged that 92% of patients in England would be seen within 18 weeks by the end of the Parliament. The latest official data for April 2026 shows 65% of patients being seen within that time, up from 58.9% in June 2024, the month before Labour took office. The overall number of waits for treatment in England in April was 7.22 million, down from 7.62 million in June 2024, a decrease of 400,000.

Labour promised to reduce average household energy bills by more than £300 over the course of the Parliament, but in reality bills have gone up. The latest domestic energy price cap set by Ofgem, the energy regulator, for the summer of 2026 is an annual rate of £1,862 for a typical household - in part reflecting the impact of global events like the Iran war. That's an increase of just under £300 on the £1,568 price cap that was in place in the summer of 2024, which Labour inherited.

The latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show the total UK welfare bill, which includes the state pension, rising from 10.7% of UK GDP in 2024-25 to 11.1% by 2029-30.