JD Vance has stepped into Britain’s leadership contest, saying the country has been “failed by its leadership for a long time” after Keir Starmer announced he would resign as prime minister.
The US vice president made the remarks in an interview published this weekend, while describing Britain as “amazing” and saying there was something “very broken about British politics.”
Starmer has said he will stay in office until the Labour Party chooses a successor. His resignation announcement followed pressure after poor local election results in May, which left his government exposed less than two years after Labour returned to power.
Vance said people in Britain were calling for structural change and named Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor and newly elected MP, as one of the politicians who could answer that demand.
Burnham is expected to be a leading figure in the succession process. If Labour chooses him, he would become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade, a run of turnover that has included the Brexit battles, the pandemic, inflation shocks and repeated party leadership crises.
Vance’s comments also landed against a strained backdrop between Washington and European capitals. Since taking office in January 2025, he has repeatedly accused European leaders of restricting free speech and mishandling immigration.
His speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2025 angered European officials after he accused Europe of retreating from democratic values. He later criticised European migration policies after protests in Britain over the killing of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak.
For Labour, the comments add an external spotlight to an internal race already shaped by questions over immigration, energy, public trust and Britain’s relationship with its allies.
Vance said he hoped Britain’s next leader could work out “how to get Britain back on track.”
