Sir Keir Starmer is heading to one of the most important international summits of the year with a political problem few modern Prime Ministers have ever faced.
Everybody knows he is leaving.
Just days after announcing his resignation, the outgoing Labour leader is preparing to join fellow NATO leaders in Turkey for talks on the future of European security, defence spending and the growing threat posed by Russia.
But critics are already questioning what influence a departing Prime Minister can realistically wield.
US political commentator Tiffany Brannon delivered a brutal assessment, describing Starmer as a “dead man walking” whose authority has evaporated before he has even boarded the plane.
“It’s going to be like how Biden must have felt after that debate during the 2024 presidential election,” she told GB News.
“Everyone knows you’re a dead man walking.
“Everyone knows that you are the least important person that they could possibly be talking to.”
The remarks will sting for a Prime Minister who had hoped to leave office projecting stability and statesmanship on the world stage.
Instead, Starmer risks arriving at the summit as a leader whose political obituary has already been written.
The timing could hardly be worse.
NATO is facing some of the most serious security challenges in decades. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to rage, defence budgets are under pressure and questions remain about Europe’s ability to protect itself amid uncertainty over long-term American commitments.
Yet while other leaders arrive focused on the future, Starmer arrives as a man with no political future of his own.
Brannon went further, suggesting foreign leaders may already be looking past the current Prime Minister and towards his expected successor, Andy Burnham.
“They’re probably going to be calling Andy Burnham to try to make some backroom deal while he’s there,” she claimed.
Whether that prediction proves accurate or not, it reflects a growing perception problem for Downing Street.
International diplomacy relies heavily on political authority. Leaders negotiate because they have the power to deliver outcomes. Once that authority begins to disappear, so too can their influence.
The danger for Starmer is that every handshake, meeting and photo opportunity at the summit will be viewed through the same lens: not as discussions with Britain’s future leader, but with Britain’s outgoing one.
That reality has already begun to cast a shadow over his final weeks in office.
At home, Labour remains consumed by questions over succession. The Government’s delayed Defence Investment Plan has yet to be published. Cabinet divisions have spilled into public view. Senior ministers have resigned. And attention has shifted rapidly towards who comes next rather than what the current Prime Minister intends to achieve.
For Starmer, the NATO summit was supposed to demonstrate leadership.
Instead, it may serve as a reminder that in politics, once your departure date is known, the world has a habit of moving on remarkably quickly.
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