By the time Sir Keir Starmer had come to the unavoidable conclusion to step down as Prime Minister, it was a decision made with his closest and most trusted confidante in politics – his wife, Victoria.
Despite repeated public assurances that Starmer would fight any leadership challenge in the days running up to his resignation, by Sunday the Labour leader knew his time was up and made the only realistic choice left available to him.
“I think Keir and Vic were really the only ones to decide,” a source said, who was on Downing Street when the Prime Minister addressed the nation on a baking Monday morning.
The couple had spent the weekend at the Prime Minister’s grace and favour retreat, Chequers, alongside Starmer’s inner circle of advisers where they deliberated over whether he should meet any challenge Andy Burnham in a leadership contest or quit No10.
As late as 9pm on Sunday night neither the chief whip, nor the Leader of the House of Commons, who were preparing for the next day’s business in the chamber, knew for definite that the PM was going to resign.
He was still scheduled to appear in the House of Commoms the following day to give an update on the previous week’s G7 summit. A source said: “It was clear the writing was on the wall but the message coming from No10 was that he was still undecided. The subversion was that he could not bring himself to accept the inevitable.”
‘I don’t think he saw that coming’
According to sources close to the Prime Minister, the mood had changed going into the weekend. The decision by Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, calling on him to stand aside had blindsided him and made him realise he no longer had the support of his Cabinet.
“I think he was very surprised by Heidi. I don’t think he saw that coming,” the insider added. “I think he got to the point where he realised if you don’t have the confidence of the Cabinet, and you don’t have the confidence of the PLP then you have no option. But Vic is the only person he really trusts in politics and I think it was decided between them.”
Moments before Starmer took his position behind the now very recognisable lectern outside the door of No10, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Vidya Alekeson gathered a band of loyalist special advisers into a room inside Downing Street where she read out some prepared words.
“There was a moment where it was very quiet, and then she stopped speaking because she was so choked up. It was highly charged. It was really hard,” a witness said.
Starmer himself was forced to hold back his own emotions in his resignation speech, when he said he will spend more time on “the most important job” that of being the “best husband I can to my fantastic wife, Vic”, whom he described as a “rock by my side through good times and bad”, and being the “best dad” to his children.
Starmer’s speech to No 10 staff
After he stepped back inside No10, the Prime Minister gave a small speech to the staff, in which he thanked them for their years of service and for making him and his family feel “so welcome”.
“He also thanked them for the ‘small moments of kindness’ they had shown him and his family. It was very touching,” a source in the room said.
Another emotion that is prevalent inside Downing Street is an overarching sense of bitterness at how Starmer’s premiership has been cut short less than two years on from him winning a landslide at the general election.
Burnham has been a regular thorn in Starmer’s side, choosing to criticise the Government at crucial moments, particularly during the party’s annual conferences. But despite the feeling of resentment, the Prime Minister and his team have refused to condone attacks against the new MP for Makerfield.
Claims attributed to Burnham’s team that No10 had refused contact was particularly difficul for some Starmer loyalists, with one adding: “What is difficult to swallow is this idea that Keir hasn’t given them enough time to prepare.
‘What more do they want?’
“What more do they want? He’s stepped aside. And this briefing that Keir has not spoken to Andy is just not true. There have been lines of communication open between them throughout. No 10 could have gone on the attack against Burnham but they always held back.”
The source also pointed to the human cost of a change in leadership, and warned that the job of prime minister must not be underestimated by Burnham and his still nascent team of advisers.
“There’s now lots of MPs and ministers who will lose their jobs,” the insider said. “The feeling now is, let’s see what he [Burnham] has got because it is fucking hard, it’s really fucking hard. It needs to be treated with the level of seriousness it deserves.
“Winning a by-election is not the same as running the country. But the feeling is that there is no appetite to smash up the party and begin a massive bout of infighting. So there is the opportunity for people to fall in behind Andy.”
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