Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Monday called for an immediate general election after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he would resign, arguing that Britain has descended into "a banana republic" and that voters should decide who leads the country next.

Starmer said Monday he would step down as leader of the governing Labour Party after losing the confidence of many Labour lawmakers, though he plans to remain caretaker prime minister until the party selects a successor.

The resignation comes less than two years after Labour's landslide victory in the July 2024 general election.

In a video posted on social media shortly after Starmer's announcement, Farage criticized Britain's recent pattern of leadership changes and said voters were being denied a say in who governs the country.

"The British public have simply had enough of political parties chopping and changing their leaders. When we vote for somebody in a general election to be our prime minister we expect them to serve their term," Farage said.

He added: "What is going on here, frankly, is reminiscent of a banana republic that has totally devalued the very process of general elections and democracy."

Farage expanded on those arguments in a Substack essay published Monday, claiming responsibility for Starmer's political downfall and describing the departing Labour leader as "the most incompetent Prime Minister this country has ever had the misfortune of having.”

The Reform UK leader renewed his demand for a nationwide vote, writing that "the country cannot afford to waste another week drifting from crisis to crisis."

"That's why millions of you turned out in the local elections to vote for Reform councillors, and it's why we have led in more than 300 opinion polls for well over a year," Farage wrote.

Farage argued that voters had already expressed dissatisfaction with the political establishment and said the public wanted a fundamentally different direction for the country.

"The British public have made their voices clear in May this year and last: Britain is broken and they want a radical reforming government that will fundamentally fix our country. But instead, Westminster wants to crown Andy Burnham off the back of a single by-election," he wrote.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and a longtime Labour figure, is widely viewed as the leading contender to replace Starmer.

He confirmed Monday that he intends to seek the Labour leadership, while former Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced he would back Burnham rather than run himself.

Farage also pointed to the frequency of leadership turnover in Britain in recent years.

"We are about to have our sixth Prime Minister in seven years; this is farcical, reminiscent of post-war Italy," he wrote. "Is that the sort of politics Labour voters wanted to see repeated when they took a chance on a different party in 2024? No."

He added that Labour voters "wanted to see the Tories thrown out of power" and argued that replacing a prime minister without a general election was unfair to voters.

"Removing a failing leader, only to replace him with another one — without a public vote or even an open discussion — is not a fair deal for the British people."

Under Britain's parliamentary system, a governing party may replace its leader and prime minister without holding a general election if it retains a majority in the House of Commons.

The next nationwide election is not required until 2029, though opposition parties are increasingly pressing Labour to seek a fresh mandate from voters.