It is not yet clear if Keir Starmer’s resignation as British Prime Minister and his likely replacement with former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will finally bring movement on a border poll to end the British occupation of Ireland.

The stains of Starmer’s premiership are being quickly papered over by the coronation of Burnham (pictured, right), who has been dubbed ‘Continuity Keir’ for the similarity between the two in terms of policy and outlook.

The churn at Downing Street, continuing under the Labour Party after a series of five Tory heaves within just eight years, has exposed the instability of Westminster politics as Britain struggles with its diminishing place in world affairs.

Political leaders in the North of Ireland, like those in Scotland and Wales, have been warning that the future of the ‘United Kingdom’ cannot continue to be dictated by governments they did not choose and have no control over.

Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill said Starmer’s resignation has reinforced the case for ending the constitutional link with Britain.

“His departure underscores the chaos of Westminster and how our future is better served by breaking our links with Britain,” she said.

“I stand ready to work constructively with the incoming British Prime Minister, but I will be clear that a hugely different approach is needed.

“People here are not second-class citizens.

“They deserve proper and fair investment in our public services, real support through the cost of living crisis, and respect for our democratic right to decide our own future.”

Burnham looks set to become the next Labour leader and move into Downing Street by September.

For Ireland, the bar is low following the departure of the colonially-minded Starmer, who shrugged off calls for referendums on Irish unity and Scottish independence, and most disastrously, backed the Israeli genocide. He also failed to deliver on a promise to replace the widely condemned Legacy Act, instead moving to introduce further protections for British Army killers.

However, there are fears Andy Burnham will not change course. Although with a northern English accent, he has already moved to surround himself with Blairite, right-wing figures.

Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit described him as a politician who changes position according to convenience, rather than conviction - a man of “symbolic words and empty gestures”.

A Catholic, Burnham is said to be proud of his Irish heritage and has spoken about his ancestors leaving Drogheda in the late 1800s.

He has built his political career around regional British power, devolution and challenging the concentration of power in London. His position on the partition of the island of Ireland is unknown.

However, during a recent visit to Belfast, he spoke at the cross-community Alliance Party conference and made a number of unionist statements in support of greater devolution of powers from Westminster to Stormont.

“If only my ancestors, who left Drogheda for Liverpool in the late 1800s, could see me now,” he said.

He compared the struggles of the Bloody Sunday families with the families of the Hillsborough stadium disaster and claimed Belfast is “just a northern industrial town” like Manchester and Liverpool.

“We have rediscovered how much we (Britain and occupied Ireland) have in common. And that feeling has only intensified in the last decade as the devolution of power has finally arrived in England.”