Starmer exits Downing Street with reported eye on NATO top job

Keir Starmer is leaving Downing Street to return to the backbenches, though allies suggest his departure from front-line politics may be temporary. While his office insists he will remain in parliament until the next election to prevent a potential byelection loss to the Greens, friends say he has not yet decided his long-term path. “He doesn’t know yet what his priority will be,” one said.

For European capitals, his next move is likely to be international. Despite domestic critics dubbing him “never here Keir” over his frequent foreign trips, he is widely seen on the continent as having performed well abroad. Allies report he is interested in becoming Nato secretary general when a vacancy arises. “It feels like he’ll end up doing something international-facing. That’s his comfort zone and also what he’s best at,” a friend said.

Starmer himself has consistently argued that foreign and domestic policy are “one and the same thing” because of their mutual impact. This international focus could define his post-premiership, distinguishing him from predecessors who chased corporate wealth. “He’ll be more Gordon Brown than Tony Blair in every way. I can’t see him going off to make his millions. He’ll pick a cause he cares about and stick with it,” one ally noted.

At home, his legacy rests on dragging the Labour party back from its Jeremy Corbyn era. “Everybody along the way said: ‘It’s not going to happen. You’re not going to do it. It’s not possible.’ And every time I said: ‘It is. You watched me do it. We did it and we won a general election.’ And, I’m very proud of that. So I shall walk out with pride,” Starmer told Sky News.

As he yields to his successor, Andy Burnham, Starmer is expected to avoid the public interventions that characterised Tony Blair’s post-premiership. “He was a pain in the ass and that says more about Tony than it ever did about Keir,” one ally remarked. Instead, he is likely to offer advice privately, guided by a sense of duty to his party.

For now, the immediate future involves a rare uninterrupted holiday with his wife, Victoria, and their two teenagers. Stepping away from a role where global events routinely disrupted his personal time, he said: “I leave probably the most high-profile job in the country to the most important, which is to be the best dad I can to my kids and best husband I can to my wife.”