Burnham, who has taken his seat in Westminster after winning last week’s Makerfield by-election, is expected to succeed him in both roles in mid-July, barring any surprise bid for the leadership from an outsider.
This sets up a short window in which Starmer will seek to make his final mark on the world stage as a lame-duck prime minister. But the draining of power from his position was already evident as the European Commission announced that the EU-U.K. summit planned for July 22 has been canceled — with a glaring hole at the top of British diplomacy in the meantime.
NATO drumbeat
Starmer is expected to press ahead with a visit to Berlin on Wednesday to meet his French, German, Italian and Polish counterparts. A spokesman for German leader Friedrich Merz said: “The E5 meeting is part of the preparations for the NATO summit, and we expect it to proceed as scheduled.”
He is also likely to take part in the NATO summit in Turkey on July 7, two days before nominations close for candidates to lead the Labour Party. If Burnham is unopposed, he will become leader and prime minister shortly after that.
Before Starmer can even get to Ankara, however, he will have to make a call on whether he can still publish the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and in what form. He has led his party towards a more hawkish position on defense spending over the last few years, and yet faces criticism that he has not managed to find an adequate settlement for the armed forces as part of the DIP.
A government official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters like others in this piece, said the Ministry of Defense is still working towards launching the DIP before the NATO meeting.