Why is the U.K. churning through prime ministers?

Come September, the U.K. will have its sixth prime minister in seven years. 

There was Theresa May, who resigned over Brexit; Boris Johnson, who was done in by partying; Liz Truss, who was famously outlasted by a head of lettuce; Rishi Sunak, who was booted out of office alongside the Conservative Party; and finally Sir Keir Starmer, who was chased off by a combination of fecklessness and Epstein-tinged scandal.

The presumptive heir to the Labour Party leadership, and the top seat at Downing Street, is Andy Burnham. He built a lot of political capital while as the mayor of Greater Manchester  and was able to convert that into a decisive by-election victory last month in the riding of Makerfield. People seem genuinely excited about his prospects as party leader and PM… though the same could have been said about Starmer two years ago. Given the recent track record of Britain’s elected leaders, it’s safe to say that Burnham has his work cut out for him.

It’s unusual to see federal leaders dropping like flies at this rate in an allegedly stable democracy like the U.K., so we had to ask: what the heck is going on? We reached out to two experts in the field of governmental leadership and British politics and posed to them two questions: What are the circumstantial reasons and what are the systemic ones for this churn? And what can the next PM do to stay in office for longer than two years? 

Here’s what they had to say.