UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer turned state prosecutor, whose ruthless ambition and formidable work ethic seem poised to propel him to Britain’s highest political office.
At 61 years old, Starmer’s unusual first name was given by his socialist parents as a tribute to Labour’s founding father, Keir Hardie. He stands out as the centre-left party’s most working-class leader in decades.
“My dad was a toolmaker, my mum was a nurse,” Starmer frequently tells voters, countering opponents’ depictions of him as a “lefty lawyer” and the epitome of a smug, liberal, London elite.
With his grey quiff and black-rimmed glasses, Keir Starmer remains an enigma to many voters. Despite this, he is likely to be handed the keys to 10 Downing Street in the general election on July 4.
Detractors label him an uninspiring opportunist, but supporters see him as a managerial pragmatist. They believe he will approach the role of prime minister with the same tireless and forensic dedication he applied to his legal career.
“Politics has to be about service,” Starmer said in a campaign speech on Monday, repeating his mantra of putting “country first, party second” after 14 years of Conservative rule that brought five prime ministers.
Sometimes appearing uncomfortable in the spotlight, the football-loving Arsenal fan — who entered politics late in life — has struggled to shed his public image as buttoned-up and boring.
But the married father of two is said to be funny and loyal in private, with a more interesting route to the cusp of the premiership than he is often given credit for.
Born on September 2, 1962, Keir Rodney Starmer was raised in a cramped, semi-detached house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father.
He had three siblings, one of whom had learning difficulties, and his parents were animal lovers who rescued donkeys.
“Whenever one of us left home, they replaced us with a donkey,” Starmer has joked.
A talented musician, Starmer had violin lessons at school with Norman Cook, the former Housemartins bassist who later became DJ Fatboy Slim. He also attended a prestigious London music school on weekends.
After completing legal studies at the universities of Leeds and Oxford, Starmer focused on championing radical causes. He defended trade unions, anti-McDonald’s activists, and death row inmates abroad.
Starmer is friends with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney from their time together at the same legal practice. He once recounted a boozy lunch he had with her and her Hollywood actor husband George.
“There were quite a lot of empty bottles by the end of the evening,” Starmer remembered.
In 2003, Starmer began transitioning towards the establishment, surprising colleagues and friends. He took on a role ensuring that police in Northern Ireland complied with human rights legislation.
Five years later, he was appointed as the director of public prosecutions for England and Wales by the then Labour government.
During his tenure from 2008 to 2013, he oversaw high-profile prosecutions, including those of MPs for expense abuse, journalists for phone-hacking, and young rioters involved in the 2011 unrest across England.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, but he rarely uses the prefix “Sir”. In 2015, Starmer was elected as a member of parliament, representing a seat in left-leaning north London.
Just weeks before his election, his mother passed away from a rare joint disease that had left her unable to walk for many years.
In 2021, he broke down in tears during a TV interview as he described how her agonizing death “broke” his father.
Just a year after entering parliament, Starmer joined a rebellion by Labour lawmakers over left-winger Jeremy Corbyn’s perceived lack of leadership during the EU referendum campaign
It failed, and later that year he rejoined the top team as Labour’s Brexit spokesman, where he remained until succeeding Corbyn in April 2020.
Since then, Starmer has demonstrated ruthlessness by purging Corbyn from the party and steering it back towards the center. He has also taken steps to tackle the issue of anti-Semitism, which had damaged Labour’s electability.
However, Starmer has faced criticism from the left for abandoning some of the pledges he made during his leadership campaign, such as the promise to scrap university tuition fees.
Despite these challenges, Starmer’s strategic repositioning of Labour reflects a lifelong drive to succeed. As he once remarked, “If you’re born without privilege, you don’t have time for messing around. You don’t walk around problems without fixing them, and you don’t surrender to the instincts of organizations that won’t face up to change.”
