'Hoping for something to change' - Yorkshire reacts to PM's resignation

"It makes no difference," is how one Yorkshireman reacted to Sir Keir Starmer's announcement of his resignation as Labour leader.

He will leave Downing Street once a new leader has been chosen by the party just two years after he won a landslide majority in the House of Commons.

Nominations are set to open on 9 July, with the process expected to be completed before the summer parliamentary recess.

New MP Andy Burnham, who won the Makerfield by-election last week, has confirmed he will stand to be the new leader. No other candidates have yet put themselves forward.

Yorkshire and The Humber sent 43 Labour MPs to the House of Commons in July 2024, but how do they and their constituents feel about Sir Keir's decision to quit.

"For myself, I haven't seen any improvement since he's been in," says Andreas.

The 21-year-old works at the Blue Whale Fish and Chip shop in Maltby, South Yorkshire, which his family has run for 20 years.

"We don't really know if we're going to get another one exactly the same, or hopefully, get somebody that's useful."

His concerns are the rising costs the business faces and says "nothing is really improving".

"We're hoping something will change [especially for] local businesses and villages.

"Small businesses are the backbone of the village - we provide for families."

Fellow Maltby resident, Jude, says Sir Keir was not "the best really".

"Recently he's been doing a few things that I thought were like fair enough."

Jude says he does not care who the next prime minister is as long as it is not Nigel Farage.

Nathan, also from Maltby says the resignation "made no difference" to him.

"People have their own opinions but for me, it is what it is.

"Someone wants one thing and someone else wants something else [but] unless you have a magic recipe, it's never going to happen, is it?

"Yeah, for me, [who the prime minister is], it makes no difference."

Yorkshire is home to the constituencies of several cabinet ministers.

Among them, Doncaster North MP and Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Milliband.

He says on X that the prime minister could be "immensely proud" of "bringing Labour back to power".

"Today's statement showed the great dignity and integrity that is the mark of the man," he adds.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the West Leeds and Pudsey MP, praised Sir Keir for helping to "build a stronger, more secure Britain".

Sir Keir's victory in 2024 saw several new Labour MPs sent to Westminster.

Calder Valley's Josh Fenton-Glynn was among them, and he says the prime minister has resigned "with the dignity I'd expect from a decent man".

"He has faced international insecurity and conflict, including in Iran, which he wisely kept us out of.

"However, what was also clear was that the country didn't feel the change on the scale they expected."

Keir Mather won a resounding by-election result in the Selby and Ainsty constituency in 2023 overturning a Conservative majority of over 20,000.

He was returned as the MP for Selby, following boundary changes, in 2024.

Writing on Facebook, he says it must have been an "incredibly difficult decision" for the prime minister to step down.

"In my view, he has made the right choice."

He says knowing the right time to leave was a "mark of good leadership".

"I have no doubt that history will judge him much more kindly than today's opinion polls, but it is right that he has listened to the mood of the country and acted in the national interest."

Spen Valley Labour MP Kim Leadbeater says her party owed Sir Keir "a huge debt of gratitude for his leadership over the past six years, bringing us back from our worst election defeat in over 80 years to a landslide majority".

"The Keir Starmer I know is a man of great integrity and decency who will always do what he believes to be right in the best interests of the country."

In York, 72-year-old Alyson Warriner says she had not been keen on Sir Keir but does not think he should have gone.

"Really we need to sort out problems in the country and wider issues before we start with a new prime minister," she says.

"Well overdue" was how Andrew Crosby reacted to the news of the prime minister quitting.

The 76-year-old says Sir Keir had been "a failure for some time".

York has two Labour MPs, and the York Central member Rachael Maskell has been a long-standing critic of the direction of the government.

Following Andy Burnham's victory in the Makerfield by-election she wrote: "I will support his quest to now bring the country together to change our nation".

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