Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of Labour Party.
Starmer said he spoke to the King this morning to inform him of his decision to resign.
He has asked the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to set out a timetable with nominations opening for the leadership on 9 July, and completed by the summer recess.
This will mean a new leader is in place before parliament returns in September.
Until then he will remain in post as prime minister, he said.
Starmer said the question his party is asking is whether he is best placed to lead it into the next general election.
He said he has “heard the answer” of his party to that question and “accepts that answer with good grace”.
Every decision he said he has taken has been about “putting the country I love first”.
“I will resign as leader of the Labour Party,” he said.
Before he announced his resignation, Starmer said he inherited Labour Party that was “politically, financially and morally bankrupt”.
He said he was told “time and time again” that the party was “finished”, but said he “proved those people wrong”.
He said he changed the party by “ripping out the poison of anti-Semitism”.
“Restoring trust on the economy, defence and national security,” he added.
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