STARMER RESIGNATION MARKS SEVENTH PRIME MINISTERIAL DEPARTURE IN DECADE

Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, marking the seventh occasion in ten years that a British prime minister has resigned from 10 Downing Street. The resignation fell on the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, which prompted David Cameron to step down as prime minister a decade earlier. Starmer's departure follows a pattern established since the 2016 vote, during which prime ministers have left office after relatively brief tenures. The Guardian's defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh, who worked as the publication's national news editor in 2016, drew parallels between the two resignations.

Cameron's resignation in 2016 came as a shock, according to Sabbagh, as Cameron had served as prime minister for six years and appeared a dominant figure in British politics at that time. Cameron faced the prospect of implementing Brexit, a policy he had campaigned against during the referendum. In the hours before his resignation, Cameron lost authority, though his departure was not immediately certain. By contrast, his successors departed without positions of strength or on matters of principle, Sabbagh stated. Boris Johnson's resignation speech included the phrase "Them's the breaks", whilst Starmer's announcement was more formal in tone, though it similarly indicated he had reached the end of his tenure.

Sabbagh characterised Brexit as representing "a kind of faultline in British history", with the referendum vote casting a long shadow across the nation over the subsequent decade. The political sketch writer John Crace has referred to the lectern used for prime ministerial resignation announcements as the "podium of doom". Before Cameron's resignation, departing prime ministers had typically relied on basic microphone stands rather than a formal lectern for such announcements.