BLUF: Seven Prime Ministers. One Cat.

Less than two years after winning one of the biggest landslides in modern British history, Keir Starmer is out. His exit — and the likely naming of Andy Burnham as successor — means Britain is preparing for its seventh(!!) Prime Minister in ten years after Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, and Starmer. 

Analysts are referring to this as a “revolving door” of prime ministers resulting from successive leaders failing to grow the economy and deliver improvements to living standards for the British. Starmer's announcement came on the eve of Brexit's 10th anniversary and, in the decade since, the electoral landscape has become unrecognizable. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, now polls at 26.7 percent. This is well above both Labour and the Conservatives at 19.7 percent each. The century-old two-party duopoly in the UK has seemingly collapsed.

For US-UK relations, the transition to the next Prime Minister once again promises a continuation of turbulence. Trump grew displeased with Starmer over Greenland and Iran; Burnham could very well prove more difficult for this Admin to work alongside. Longer term, the "special relationship" may be entering its most uncertain chapter in more than 100 years. One thing is for certain, if our friends across the pond don’t get their rudderless government led with a steady hand and send a spark to ignite its economy, there is no doubt that London's ability to partner with Washington on pressing global security challenges will suffer. That would be quite problematic for America and, more broadly, for democracy and freedom.

On that sunny note, we will leave you with this - even with all this change one thing stands true – the U.K.’s Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry the Cat, may just be the true anchor of British democracy.