Parliamentary elections - Keir Starmer: Seven facts about the man who could rule the UK
## Contents
- Working Class Hero
- Musical Talent
- Healthy Nutrition
- Human Rights Lawyer
- Excursion into Communism
- Unwilling Politician?
- Mr. Boring
The Labour Party is on the brink of a election victory. Surveys show the social democratic party significantly ahead of the conservative Tories, who currently have Rishi Sunak as their prime minister. For the first time in 14 years, the United Kingdom could therefore be governed by a social democratic prime minister: Keir Starmer, 61, Labour Party chairman. But who is the politician? Seven facts about the man who could move into 10 Downing Street.
1. Working Class Hero
Keir Starmer grew up as the son of a nurse and a toolmaker in a working-class family. Simple, poor circumstances. The Starmer family home in Surrey county southwest of London had holes in the wall. The parents couldn't afford the repairs, not even when the basement was under water. They were big supporters of the Labour Party. It is reported that they named their son after the founder and first chairman of the party, Keir Hardie.
2. Musical Talent
In his early years, Keir Starmer played the flute, recorder, piano, and violin. As a teenager, he even received a place in the junior program of a renowned music school. Keir Starmer attended the same school as the British DJ and music producer Fatboy Slim. However, the musician expressed doubts about Starmer's musical talent to his biographers. The musician said to Starmer's biographers: "Thank God Starmer is a much better politician than he was a violinist."
3. Healthy Nutrition
Keir Starmer lived for more than 30 years as a vegetarian. "I stopped eating meat for principle reasons, because I believed it was not right for the body and the planet," he told Sky News. "But I have to admit that I miss meat." Recently, he has started eating fish again, so he is now a pescetarian.
4. Human Rights Lawyer
Keir Starmer is the first in his family to have a university degree. He studied law in Leeds and Oxford and later became a respected human rights lawyer. Many of his cases he took on pro bono, that is, without payment. So also in the famous McLibel case, a defamation lawsuit by McDonald's against two environmental activists who accused the Fast Food Chain in a brochure of exploiting employees and cruelty to animals. The proceedings dragged on for almost ten years, in the end the activists were convicted and ordered to pay 40,000 pounds to McDonald's. For the Fast Food Chain, the proceedings turned into an image disaster, which is why the money was never collected.
5. Excursion into Communism
After graduating from school, Starmer traveled with a friend to Hungary and Slovenia to explore the world behind the Iron Curtain. Later, he went back to Czechoslovakia and helped restore a monument for civilians murdered by the Nazis. "I had a glimpse of a totalitarian regime," he later told his biographer. "I don't want to live like that."
6. Politician against his will?
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After his career as a human rights lawyer, Keir Starmer served as Director of the Crown Prosecution Service, the British CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). He was persuaded by the then Labour Party Chairman, Ed Miliband, to enter politics. As the head of the CPS, Starmer could not be a party member. Miliband managed to delay the selection process for the Holborn & St. Pancras constituency seat to enable Starmer's candidacy.
7. Mr. Boring
Keir Starmer is not known for being particularly dynamic or charismatic, not the kind to rally the crowds. His campaigning is unspectacular, with rather sober appearances. British newspapers have already dubbed him "Mr. Boring". Keir Starmer responded: "I am campaigning to be Prime Minister, not a circus director."
The Labour Party's potential prime minister, Keir Starmer, hails from a Labour-supporting family in Great Britain, specifically in a working-class neighborhood near London. During his school days, Starmer attended the same institution as Fatboy Slim, a renowned British DJ, who acknowledged Starmer's superior political prowess over his musical talent.
