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Former UK PM Keir Starmer to stand down as MP: report

By AAP Newswire

Sep 1, 2026

Former British prime ‌minister Keir Starmer will stand down as ‌a member of parliament, his local newspaper ‌says, some six weeks after he resigned from government.

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"I will now focus on other things and that ‌will be international ‌affairs ⁠including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world," the Camden New Journal quoted Starmer as saying.

"I will also continue, as I have done for a long time now with others, to work on combating violence against women and girls; that is an issue that matters to me hugely.

"It's work I started before I became an MP and it's work I'm keen to continue after I'm an MP. So international affairs on the one hand, and continuing my work on violence against women and girls on the other."

The paper did not give a time frame for when ⁠a ‌by-election could be held for Starmer's Holborn and St Pancras seat ‌in north London.

Starmer guided the Labour Party into power in 2024 with the biggest parliamentary majority in Britain's modern history, but failed to connect with voters ‌and steadily lost the support of the public and his party.

He was replaced in July by Andy Burnham, who became Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade.

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