British Prime Minister Keir Starmer finds himself under pressure once again, this time after devastating local election results for his Labour Party.

For followers of UK politics, it is a familiar picture.

One has to go back only to April, when Starmer was facing calls to resign over the latest revelations in the controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson and his naming as the UK envoy to Washington.

When it came to light that Mandelson, a long-time associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was appointed despite failing security checks, Starmer admitted that he had been wrong to appoint him but shifted the blame onto Foreign Office civil servants for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment.

This time around, the Prime Minister will find it more difficult to find someone else to blame.

Many viewed the latest elections as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, and judging by the results, the answer was not favorable.

On Monday, in a speech aimed at easing the pressure on him, Starmer vowed to prove wrong the "doubters" in his own party, and among the electorate as a whole.

But as the calls for him to resign grow by the day, less than two years after a landslide win that catapulted him and his Labour into power, are the problems that got him there of his own making?

Or is he just another one in a growing list of prime ministers that are faced with an impossible challenge of governing the UK?

The UK has had four premiers in as many years.

Both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were ousted before the end of the parliament term, with the second one mentioned lasting only 45 days at Downing Street, with Rishi Sunak's time as PM coming to an end after defeat in the 2024 general election.

So what are some of the issues that these prime ministers had to deal with, and did they make their demise inevitable?

Brexit

The obvious elephant in the room would be the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the consequent departure of the UK from the European Union.

The outcome of the referendum first saw David Cameron, a strong proponent of the Remain vote, resign as PM and replaced by Theresa May.

But her plans on how to leave the EU bloc time and time again failed to gain support from lawmakers in Parliament.

She resigned after a third failed attempt to get the exit deal with the EU ratified, and was replaced by Boris Johnson in 2019.

And while her successors were arguably not direct victims of Brexit itself, they had to deal with fallout from its economic and political implications.

According to the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, Brexit has imposed a 'significant, persistent, and worsening drag' on the UK economy, with estimates indicating GDP is 6–8% lower than it would have been otherwise.

Donald Trump

The political impact of Brexit is not as easy to quantify, but the special relationship with the US that many proponents of the Leave vote aimed to leverage has not panned out the way some hoped, largely due to the ascendance of Donald Trump and his America First approach.

From tariffs and political differences to the US' involvement in conflicts in the Middle East and Trump's desire to acquire Greenland, the UK leadership has been increasingly forced to juggle between caressing the US President and their own national interests as well as domestic political pressure.

Struggling public services

But political pressure is far from the only thing that Starmer and those that came before him have to deal with on home soil.

Public services across the UK have been under increasing strain for years, and the recent Covid pandemic and conflicts in Europe and beyond have pushed them to the brink.

Whether it's the long waiting lists for treatment in the NHS, which some argue is simply no longer fit for purpose, or social care that many believe is surviving only thanks to the selfless sacrifices of unpaid carers, the UK government faces a plethora of domestic issues with a very finite amount of money to deal with them.

Rise of populism

It's a struggle that leaves voters disillusioned with the current political system and, if the recent elections are any indicator, willing to look beyond the traditional parties in a search for change.

The rise of populism is far from unique to the UK, with populist movements popping up with varying degrees of political success across Europe and beyond.

The election gains of Reform UK and the Green Party has shown that politics in the UK has fragmented.

Arguably, a less unified political landscape could make governing more difficult, as the need to find a compromise in an increasingly polarised discourse does not come easy.

On the other hand, an argument could be made that this fragmentation is a direct result of traditional parties being out of touch for too long.

Doom of their own making

Be it as it may, some would say that the struggles of recent PMs did not stem from a fragmented political landscape.

Starmer and his Labour have a huge majority in the House of Commons, leaving them to pursue their manifesto, one that secured them the landslide victory, as they please.

So did Boris Johnson and his Conservatives after their win in 2019.

But Johnson was undone by a growing list of scandals, including Partygate and his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party while knowing of allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Successor Liz Truss was forced to resign after the fallout of her disastrous 2022 mini budget.

And the pressure on Starmer stems largely from questionable political decisions, be it appointing Mandelson as British ambassador to the US or unpopular policies, such as cutting the winter fuel allowance and welfare reforms.

So while all of them had or have to contend with the issues above and more, their ultimate demise or building pressure does not come as a direct result of them.

So perhaps, rather than asking whether the UK has become impossible to govern, the right question is whether it is governed well and by the right people.