Sir Keir Starmer is walking away from Parliament altogether. The former British prime minister announced on Tuesday that he will resign as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, the North London seat he has held for 11 years, triggering the seventh by-election of the current Parliament.

The move comes barely six weeks after Starmer was forced out of 10 Downing Street and replaced by Andy Burnham, who became Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade amid collapsing Labour support and mounting pressure from the right-wing Reform UK party. Starmer had previously said he intended to stay on as a backbench MP until the next general election.

In his resignation statement, Starmer said "now is the right time to step down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras and hand the baton over to a successor," adding that he plans to focus on "international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world," alongside continued work on violence against women and girls.

"It's been an honour and privilege to represent the best constituency in the country since taking over from the great Frank Dobson 11 years ago."

A landslide, then a swift fall

Starmer won Holborn and St Pancras comfortably in the 2024 general election with a majority exceeding 11,500 votes, part of the landslide that swept Labour to power after 14 years of Conservative rule. His premiership lasted roughly two years and was marked by U-turns, spending cuts and a steady erosion of public support before internal party pressure pushed him out this summer.

Reaction from his own party has been largely warm. Prime Minister Andy Burnham paid tribute in Parliament, crediting Starmer with delivering one of Labour's "best victories" and laying groundwork for national renewal, according to Al Jazeera. Labour MP Steve Reed said Starmer "leaves Parliament now with his head held high," while LabourList editor Emma Burnell said the party "owes Keir Starmer a debt of gratitude" for making it electable again.

Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake was pointedly less generous, saying: "Whilst we have disagreed with almost all of Sir Keir Starmer's decisions, I wish him and his family well for the future. It is fitting that his final act as a member of parliament is yet another U-turn, having pledged to stay on."

The resulting by-election is shaping up as a genuine fight for Labour. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has emerged as the main challenger in the North London seat, according to Time, with the Greens having made significant gains in Camden's local elections in May. No date has yet been set for the vote, but it will be the first London by-election since Boris Johnson quit his Uxbridge seat.

For now, Starmer's exit closes out one of the more compressed political arcs in recent British history — landslide winner to backbench departure in just over two years — and leaves Burnham to manage the fallout, and the fight for Holborn and St Pancras, without him.