The son of a toolmaker, the man behind Labour’s seismic comeback after 14 years of Tory rule, and now, less than two years later, a leader ousted by his own party.
The beginning of Keir Starmer’s downfall came after a catastrophic set of election results for the Labour Party in May, in which it lost more than 1,400 council seats across England, and had little success in Scotland and Wales.
Then, Andy Burnham found his way back to parliament through the Makerfield by-election, piling on even more pressure.
Back in June, after a weekend of intense discussions with allies, Starmer stood in front of Downing Street and announced his resignation.
ITV News looks at the meteoric rise and fall of the UK’s 58th prime minister.
Humble beginnings
Starmer has often told the story of his humble beginnings, especially during the 2024 election campaign trail.
Growing up in the small town of Oxted in Surrey, his father worked as a toolmaker in a factory, and his mother was a nurse in the NHS.
He was the first of his family to go to university, graduating from Leeds in 1985 with a first-class law degree.
Starmer qualified as a lawyer in 1987 and began his career working as a barrister, going on to specialise in human rights.
Almost three decades later, he was made director of public prosecutions, putting him at the top of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
During his tenure at the CPS, he oversaw the prosecution of Stephen Lawrence‘s murderers and gave evidence at the Leveson inquiry.
It was for this work that he was knighted by the then-Prince Charles during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2014.
Leading the Labour landslide
In 2015, Starmer made the switch to politics, being voted into parliament for the first time at the age of 52.
Elected with a promise to tackle injustice, he has represented Holborn and St Pancras as an MP ever since.
He soon earned a spot in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, serving as shadow Brexit secretary from October 2016 until April 2020, when he replaced his former boss at the top of the party.
Starmer became Labour leader at the height of the pandemic and led the response to the flouting of lockdown rules inside Boris Johnson’s government.
After a campaign centred on change and “stopping the chaos” of the Tories, Starmer became prime minister with a huge Labour majority of 411 seats at the 2024 general election.
“Politics can be a force for good and that is how we will govern,” he said at the time. “Country first, party second.”
Under his new leadership, Starmer made pledges to kickstart the economy, make Britain “a clean energy superpower” and rejuvenate the NHS.
However, the last two years have been tainted by several setbacks and scandals that have plagued the prime minister and given him little time to celebrate the wins.
A premiership defined by U-turns
The left wing of his party frustrated Starmer’s attempts to enforce his policies, notably in cutting its welfare bill, forcing him into one reversal after another.
Restricting the winter fuel allowance, keeping the two-child benefit cap, and the introduction of mandatory digital IDs were all policies the government has made U-turns on.
In May 2025, Starmer announced immigration reforms in a speech memorable for his assertion that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers”.
The phrase, which Starmer later said he “regretted”, drew criticism from many who likened it to Enoch Powell’s inflammatory ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
The prime minister did, however, see some domestic wins.
The NHS England waiting list for routine hospital appointments fell to its lowest level in nearly four years at the end of March 2026, and more than 65% of patients began treatment within 18 weeks of referral – the NHS target -the same month, the highest percentage since 2021.
Net migration was also brought down by 69% for the year ending June 2025 and thousands of families benefited from the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.
Time will tell how popular other policies, such as the introduction of the Renter’s Rights Act, the Employment Rights Act, and bringing rail back into national control, will be.
International relations
On the international stage, Starmer was seen as having met with more success.
He made headway in repairing relations with the EU, claiming: “This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe.”
Starmer also used his premiership to strike “landmark” trade deals with countries such as India, and, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, led the so-called “coalition of the willing” to commit to forming a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
However, his relationship with Donald Trump was a little more complicated, initially cultivating a good relationship with the US president, before they fell out over the war in Iran.
On a visit to the White House in February 2025, the pair were all smiles as Starmer handed Trump an invitation for a second state visit.
As the American president triggered sweeping tariffs on countries in April of the same year, the UK and US agreed a deal that would protect British cars and planes.
The pair’s relationship soured after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February 2026 and the US president took umbrage with Starmer’s apparent lack of support.
At the time, he said he was “not happy” with the prime minister, describing him as “not Winston Churchill”.
The Mandelson problem
However, it was through his determination to strengthen the bonds with the White House that Starmer’s judgment was brought into question.
His appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as UK Ambassador to the US in December 2024 raised eyebrows at the time, but it was the peer’s inclusion in the so-called Epstein files, released earlier this year, that intensified anger.
Not only was the extent of Lord Mandelson’s friendship with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein revealed, but so was the indication that he leaked market-sensitive information to him while he was a government minister.
After Mandelson was sacked, Starmer said he was “sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies” and insisted that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of the peer’s relationship with the convicted sex offender when he was picked for the role.
Local elections
The disastrous May election results were the final nail in the coffin for Starmer, whose party saw big losses to Reform UK, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru.
In the following days, Starmer doubled down on his position, pledging to go further on defence, energy and in forging closer ties with Europe.
However, as Labour MP Catherine West, who led the original charge against the leader, stated, it was “too little too late”.
Resignation
In an emotional resignation speech on June 22, Starmer defended his record and pledged to give his successor “my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago”.
“Thank you. Thank you. Walking up this street two years ago was the proudest moment of my life. A new Labour government. The first in 14 years. A page in our country’s history turned after years of disappointment and despair,” he said.
“The chance to change the lives of millions of people for the better. That’s what I came into politics for. The journey to that point was not easy.”