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King Charles III accepts Starmer's resignation

The United Kingdom sank into a political crisis after the May 7 local elections, as result of which the Labour Party lost control of the Welsh Parliament for the first time

LONDON, July 20. /TASS/. Keir Starmer has formally tendered his resignation as prime minister of the United Kingdom during an audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, the royal press service said.

"Sir Keir Starmer MP had an audience of The King this morning and tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury which His Majesty was graciously pleased to accept," it said in a statement.

On June 22, Starmer said he would step down as leader of the Labour Party and prime minister of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom sank into a political crisis after the May 7 local elections, as result of which the Labour Party lost control of the Welsh Parliament for the first time. In various legislative bodies in England, Labour lost 1,400 seats.

Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, has become the new prime minister. He met with Charles III to receive a mandate to form a government.

Starmer's short stint

Starmer's short stint as prime minister puts him in the bottom third of British government heads in terms of time spent in office, according to TASS calculations based on information from open sources.

He spent two years and 15 days as prime minister. That term of office is shorter than 43 out of 58 British prime ministers. Of the British prime ministers of the last decade, Starmer has outstripped only his Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak (one year and 254 days), and Liz Truss, a member of the same party, who holds the record for the shortest tenure as prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. In 2022, she served as prime minister for only 49 days.

The longest-serving head of the British government (20 years and 314 days) was the leader of the Whig Party Robert Walpole (1676-1745).

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