In Germany, Downing Street was likened to a transit station, given the regular comings and goings of different prime ministers and staff. Meanwhile, a bemused Spanish newspaper concluded No 10 seemed to have been fitted with a revolving door.
As news outlets across Europe digested the implications of Keir Starmer’s precipitous fall from landslide election winner to ousted prime minister, many also focused on a wider reality – Britain’s once much vaunted political stability was a thing of the past.
“Keir Starmer’s resignation confirms instability is the new normal in British politics,” noted the Spanish daily La Vanguardia. “Downing Street seems to have a revolving door.”
Its assessment was reflected across Europe. An analysis for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asked the question usually reserved for England football managers. “An impossible job? Even before a successor for Keir Starmer has been chosen, it’s clear: many fail at the task,” it said.
Along with other prominent European titles, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was explicit about Brexit’s role in both Starmer’s demise and the state of UK politics. “Discontent within his party and the consequences of Brexit made the office difficult for Starmer,” it stated.
An analysis by Spain’s El País – part of a special feature on “the political crisis in Britain” – was more blunt. “The broken promises of a Brexit that made everything worse,” the headline stated. “Neither the economy nor the welfare state are better off, but the same political right that drove it is stronger than ever.”
An accompanying political commentary was equally frank. “Only a century ago [the UK] was competing with the United States for global hegemony,” it said. “Today its economy languishes. Its politics are in tatters.”
France’s Libération had a piece detailing “10 years of Brexit and an immense waste”.
The analysis on Denmark’s Børsen’s front page said Starmer had been “chased down by both the recent and the distant past”.
“The British prime minister has struggled with problems of his own making, but also to a large extent with the consequences of Brexit,” said a commentary inside the newspaper . “This week marks 10 years since Britons voted to leave the EU – and they are now getting their seventh head of government since the referendum.”
Der Spiegel, the German-language news magazine, had the headline “Downing Street transit station”, comparing the prime ministerial residence to a bustling railway interchange.
Recounting the departures of recent incumbents, it stated: “A gambler [David Cameron], a populist [Boris Johnson], a head of government for six weeks [Liz Truss]: Even in the years before Keir Starmer, the position of British prime minister was a hot seat.”
Despite Britain’s now blighted history of prime ministerial departures, Germany’s liberal-leaning Süddeutsche Zeitung did find something novel in the sheer pace of Starmer’s decline.
“The British yearn for someone who gives them hope,” it read. “Keir Starmer was honest with them. It’s not uncommon for things to go wrong between the people and the government. But the speed with which the prime minister became a villain is astonishing.”
Libération concluded Starmer had been brought to power “more by voters’ rejection of the Conservatives than by support for his own programme”, with his leadership collapsing under its own controversies and contradictions.
There were some sympathetic takes on Starmer’s tenure, however, including from Trouw, the liberal-leaning Dutch newspaper.
“After Starmer, Labour needs a prime minister who pats himself on the back more,” an analysis stated, arguing Starmer’s achievements had gone unnoticed due to his poor political communication skills.
“His successor must be in office before September,” it said. “That new Labour leader will need to be better able to claim credit for successes.”
Given the forces that have dislodged so many prime ministers since the Brexit vote, a comment piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung did not expect much to change with Andy Burnham’s imminent elevation.
Its headline simply read: “New head, old problems.”