LEADING Asian business leaders and parliamentarians paid tribute to Sir Keir Starmer as he announced he was standing down as prime minister on Monday (22), crediting him with leaving India-UK relations on a strong footing for his successor to build on.
Starmer’s resignation sets in motion a Labour party leadership contest, with newly elected MP Andy Burnham seen as the front-runner to take charge at Downing Street in the coming weeks.
Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer and co-chair of the India All Party Parliamentary Group, said it was under Starmer’s premiership that the UK-India Free Trade Agreement was signed, a deal first negotiated from January 2022.
India would remain a top priority for whoever succeeds Starmer, the peer said.
Lord Krish Raval, chair of the Labour Indians diaspora group, also said Starmer would be remembered for signing the FTA, and added the relationship with India would endure given the country’s growing strength in financial technology and venture capital.
Uday Nagaraju, a tech entrepreneur and founder of AI Policy Labs who recently became one of the newest British Indian Labour peers in the House of Lords, said Starmer “helped deliver a major step forward in UK-India relations” with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
“Our prime minister, Keir Starmer, leaves office with dignity and with a serious record.
Kanishka Narayan MP Leon Neal/Getty Images
He restored Labour to government, put stability and economic credibility back at the centre of British politics,” said Lord Nagaraju.
Virendra Sharma, a Labour party veteran and former MP for Ealing Southall, said the next leader should learn from Starmer’s tenure, and expressed confidence the July 15 date set for the FTA’s implementation would be honoured.
Labour’s leadership contest is expected to run until mid-July, though Burnham’s emergence as a strong favourite raises the possibility of a new leader being in place well before the expected September timeline.
Dr Kishore Jayaraman, Group CEO of the UK India Business Council, described the change in leadership as part of a natural process that countries go through. He said the India-UK partnership was built on principles and a win-win agreement that would continue, regardless of changes in government.
Starmer announced he would step down in an emotional speech outside No 10, saying he wanted to spend more time on what he described as the “most important job” – being a husband and father.
He paid tribute to his wife Victoria, saying she had been “a rock by my side through good times and bad”, and added that he wanted to be “the best dad” he could to their children.
Lisa NandyAlishia Abodunde/Getty Images
Asian ministers and lawmakers reflected on Starmer’s leadership and his record on rebuilding the party’s standing with the British Asian community.
AI AND online safety minister, Kanishka Narayan MP, said Starmer’s “own story of public service commitment, grounded in principle, not privilege” first inspired him to leave the technology sector for politics, adding that it was essential in making the Labour Party “match fit to win”.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said Starmer had taken Labour from its worst election defeat in nearly a century into government, where the party had begun rebuilding public services and investing in communities. She said public service took “a huge personal toll” on him and his family, who deserved the thanks of the party.
Satvir Kaur, MP for Southampton Test, said Starmer was “a hugely decent man who brought integrity to the job”, recalling he promoted her while she was on maternity leave – a first for the country. Kaur said Starmer brought the party “back from the brink” to deliver its first government in 14 years, with constituencies such as Southampton already seeing the benefit.
Preet Kaur Gill MP thanked the prime minister and his family for “everything they have given”, saying he had served the country “with decency, determination and integrity”. She said history should remember that he inherited a Labour Party “on its knees” and led it back into government with a landslide win.
Just days before announcing his resignation, Starmer met India’s prime minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France, where the two leaders set July 15 as the date for the FTA to come into force.
Lord Krish RavalEastern Eye
The implementation of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) – expected to significantly boost the £48 billion bilateral trading relationship – is now set to coincide with the arrival of a new prime minister.
Starmer worked to rebuild the party’s connection with British Indians, a relationship strained under former leader Jeremy Corbyn over a perceived anti-India stance on Kashmir.
His approach to India was set out in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto, which pledged a “new strategic partnership with India” including a free trade agreement, alongside deeper cooperation on security, education, technology and climate change.
“I have a clear message for you all today: this is a changed Labour party,” he declared shortly before the general election.
During a campaign visit to the Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury, north London, he sought to reassure British Hindus that there was “absolutely no place for Hinduphobia in Britain” – a message he has reiterated over the past few years, including during Diwali celebrations at Downing Street.
Starmer, 63, who represents Holborn and St Pancras in parliament, was credited with engineering an impressive turnaround for Labour following the party’s crushing defeat in the December 2019 general election.
On Tuesday (23), two Labour MPs were considering whether to challenge Andy Burnham to lead the party and become the next prime minister.
Lord Karan BilimoriaEastern Eye
Former armed forces minister Al Carns told an event on Tuesday he wanted to hear Burnham’s “vision” for the country before deciding whether or not to stand. “We’ll see where we go from there,” he added.
A few media reports said government minister Darren Jones was being encouraged to run by some MPs.
A person close to Jones said Jones was keeping his options open until Burnham lays out more detailed plans for government, particularly on the economy, but that he considered a run “very unlikely”. Government minister Nick Thomas-Symonds echoed the views of many Labour MPs on Tuesday when he told Sky News that a “swift transition” was in “the best interests of the country”.
However, Labour MP John Slinger, a Starmer loyalist, told BBC radio the public would think “we’d slightly lost our minds if we didn’t go through a process where we subject people who aspire to the highest office in the land to completely normal scrutiny”. Fellow backbencher Nadia Whittome also called for a contest, telling the BBC that “candidates setting out their stall transparently” would make Labour and the government “stronger”.
But one Labour MP, who asked not to be named, said a contest would be “hugely expensive and time-consuming”.
“Andy has such a head of steam it would be Quixotic. “We need unity now,” he said.
