A decade on from the Brexit vote, the U.K. will have 7 prime ministers, hit a demographic trap, and taken a 6% hit to its economy

A decade ago today, June 23rd, 2016, 52% of the British electorate voted to leave the European Union. It was a massively consequential moment for the U.K.’s economy and political scene, and kicked off one of the most tumultuous decades in the country’s recent history. On Monday, Keir Starmer announced he would resign as prime minister after two years in seat—something that may seem short for leaders of some countries, but for the U.K., ranks as one of the longer tenures in recent years. Nominations for a successor will open next month and a next party leader is likely to be decided soon after, at which point Starmer’s resignation will mark the end of a chaotic period filled with political whiplash that saw his Labour Party suffer devastating losses in local elections last month. Starmer’s resignation paves the way to the premiership for Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester. If chosen by Labour, Burnham will become the U.K.’s seventh prime minister to have held office in the decade since Britons voted on the country’s new trajectory. The years since have been a time of volatility unmatched in the U.K.’s recent political history, compounded by economic malaise and deep-rooted societal changes that will likely hold repercussions deep into the next decade and beyond. With Starmer’s announcement, the outgoing prime minister brought a fittingly turbulent end to a chaotic decade, one that began with a similar strain of political upheaval. Whiplash, by the numbers Six prime ministers have taken office at 10 Downing Street since the referendum, none of whom have lasted long enough to bury the political instability Brexit unleashed. David Cameron, who called the Brexit campaign an act of “economic self-harm” and campaigned voraciously against it, was forced to quit his post the morning after losing. Theresa May then spent three years in office trying and failing to pass a Brexit deal that made no one happy, and was eventually voted down by the House of C