LILLEY: Will Mark Carney follow the same political fate as Britain’s Keir Starmer?

PM must be looking sideways as his British counterpart faces an uprising within the Labour Party

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Published May 12, 2026  •  3 minute read

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 2025 Global Progress Action Summit on Sept. 26, 2025, in London. The invitation-only summit, co-hosted by Labour Together, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action), and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) brings together centre-left leaders, policymakers, and strategists from over 40 countries to discuss, "national security, growth that works for working people, migration in an age of global movement, and building fair societies based on solidarity and reciprocity." Photo by Niklas Halle'n /WPA Pool/Getty Images

So far, four cabinet ministers have quit and 80 MPs — about 20% of his caucus — have called for him to resign, but British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he will stay on. Here in Canada, Mark Carney must be looking sideways and hoping that he isn’t next.

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Sure, Canada’s prime minister is still riding high in the wake of the April 2025 election and as long as Donald Trump remains front and centre in the minds of the electorate, it will help him.

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Still, just 10 months before Carney won his minority government and 22 months before he secured his manufactured majority, Starmer won a massive majority in Britain. It was the best showing for his Labour Party since Tony Blair’s 2001 victory and it should have led to easy sailing.

Starmer blew comfortable lead

Instead, less than two years in, Starmer is facing an internal revolt after Labour experienced a pummelling in local elections.

Right now, Labour trails the Conservatives nationally by one point and Reform by at least eight points. In elections held last week, Starmer’s Labour Party lost seats to the Greens on the left and the Reform on the right in local council-level elections.

Those votes don’t directly affect the national government, but they do show the direction of the country and right now that direction is not moving Labour’s way.

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How does this relate to Carney?

Mark Carney’s approval rating. Photo by Toronto Sun graphic

Carney fully backed Starmer’s Labour Party

Before becoming Canada’s 24th prime minister, Carney was obviously the governor of the Bank of England and an adviser to the Labour Party before and after they took office. He endorsed Rachel Reeves to become Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, their version of a finance minister, ahead of the 2024 election.

Reeves has not had a good run despite hiring Carney to launch a new fund that may sound oddly familiar to Canadians.

“In March, the former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, agreed to lead a task force on the establishment of a new National Wealth Fund,” Reeves said in a speech in early July 2024.

If the National Wealth Fund sounds familiar, that’s because it sounds very much like Carney’s new Canada Strong Fund in structure and purpose. The Starmer government, in many ways, followed the path set out by Carney.

“She understands the economics of work, of place and family. And look, it is beyond time we put her energy and ideas into action,” Carney said in a video played before a Labour Party conference months before the election.

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Carney hired by Tories, supported Liberals

In both Canada and Britain, Carney was hired to run the central banks of both countries by Conservative governments. After working under Stephen Harper in Canada and then David Cameron and others in Britain, Carney turned and supported either the Liberal or Labour party that opposed those who gave him a job and a platform.

In both Canada and Britain, the parties that Carney supported have not been good for their respective national economies. Perhaps Carney is like so many people involved in politics: Good at handling a certain role, but not a good leader.

Right now, that doesn’t matter because Carney is experiencing a honeymoon simply because he is seen as standing up to Trump. It doesn’t mean that he’s getting results, because he’s not, it just means that he’s perceived as being the anti-Trump.

As long as Trump is in office, Carney will not suffer the same fate as Starmer despite running very similar policies that have already been shown to fail.

Carney is not only getting a pass from voters at the moment, he’s getting a pass from Canada’s national media. Most can’t seem to find a reason to ask him the tough questions that need be asked.

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