Christopher Luxon wishes UK's Keir Starmer well after resignation announcement

Prime minister Christopher Luxon says he wishes his UK counterpart well, following Sir Keir Starmer's decision to resign.

Starmer has announced he will stand down as leader of the UK Labour Party, following a period of plummeting personal and political popularity.

He will stay in his post until the contest to replace him is completed.

It clears the way for former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who has just returned to Parliament after the Makerfield by-election, to run for the leadership of the party - and the country.

On Tuesday morning, Christopher Luxon said he had worked "really constructively" with Starmer.

"I think we advanced the New Zealand-UK relationship tremendously in the last two years. Our exports, as I said last night, are up 42 percent to the UK. We deepened our security ties, particularly around the training of Ukrainian soldiers. A great admirer of how he actually stood up on a principled basis and supported Zelenskyy and Ukraine consistently. And I just wish him well for the future," Luxon said.

Luxon said Starmer had called him "out of the blue" recently for a check-in chat. He would not comment on the circumstances of the resignation, saying he did not comment on domestic UK politics.

But he said he looked forward to working with the new UK prime minister "in due course."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who had met with Starmer both as New Zealand prime minister and in opposition, said he had a lot of sympathy for the outgoing British leader.

"He is a thoroughly decent, honourable, kind person doing a really tough job. I think being prime minister of the UK right now is clearly a very, very tough gig, and I felt for him enormously last night when I saw his resignation," Hipkins said.