Pakistan, June 23 -- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's resignation is not simply the story of a failed prime minister. Less than two years ago, he had entered Downing Street after a Labour landslide that ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Today, he leaves office not as a reckless populist, nor as an obviously incompetent administrator, but as a sober, disciplined, legalistic politician who never managed to make voters feel that he understood them.

That failure had become politically unbearable. Starmer had grown deeply unpopular, and a growing number within Labour had reached the conclusion that he could no longer lead the party to victory at the next election.

Starmer was elected as a safe pair of hands after years of Tory chaos. Brit...