This man is likely to become the new British prime minister
Critics label Opposition leader Keir Starmer as a colourless opportunist. His supporters, however, praise the 61-year-old as a pragmatic manager. The Labour leader is on the brink of ending the 14-year Conservative rule in Britain.
Starmer's campaign is deliberately low-key, his demeanour sober. "I am running for Prime Minister, not as a circus director", Starmer says. The Labour Party leader positions himself as a return to seriousness in British politics. And it seems the British public longs for this, after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule.
According to a recently published survey, Labour could win a record number of 425 out of 650 seats in the Parliament election on this Thursday. Britain elects under the first-past-the-post system: The House of Commons consists of MPs who have won their own constituencies. The nationwide performance of parties plays no role in seat distribution.
Named after the Labour founder
Starmer owes the Conservatives a debt of gratitude for his current trajectory towards the famous house at 10 Downing Street in London. A few years ago, this would have seemed unlikely. The 61-year-old is a latecomer to politics, starting his career as a lawyer.
Starmer was born on September 2, 1962, and grew up with three siblings in a cramped terraced house on the outskirts of London. His father was a toolmaker, his mother a nurse, and he himself was seriously ill. They named their son the unusual name Keir - a tribute to the politician Keir Hardie, who founded the Labour Party in 1900.
"I know what it's like when you're ashamed to bring your friends home because the carpet is worn out and the windows are broken", Starmer recalls of his childhood and contradicts his detractors, who portray him as part of a self-satisfied London liberal elite.
Friends with Amal Clooney
In school, he studied together with Norman Cook, later DJ Fatboy Slim, the violin. At the weekend, he visited a renowned London music school. Starmer studied law in Leeds and Oxford and became a human rights lawyer. He defended trade unions, took on McDonald's, and advocated for those sentenced to death in the Caribbean. He has been friends with the prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney since their time in the same law firm.
Colleagues and friends were surprised when Starmer started moving towards the Establishment in 2003: In this year, he became a human rights advisor to the Northern Irish police force and was responsible for ensuring that the police in Northern Ireland respected human rights. Five years later, the then Labour government appointed him Attorney General for England and Wales.
Until 2013, Starmer brought charges against MPs misusing expenses, against journalists tapping phones, and against young rioters of the 2011 riots. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Starmer, a title he rarely uses.
In 2015, he was elected to his first political office: Two weeks after his mother's death, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) in a traditional Labour constituency in the North of London. One year later, Starmer participated in the unsuccessful rebellion against the controversial and left-wing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
However, he became the Labour spokesperson on Brexit - against which he had voted - before he replaced Corbyn as Labour leader in April 2020. Since then, Starmer has moved Labour significantly to the centre and fought against anti-Semitism in the party, which led to Corbyn's exclusion.
Starmer still seems uneasy in the spotlight at times. But he is trying to shake off his image as a stiff long-face. "In politics, it's about serving," he recently said in a campaign speech. "First the country, then the party," is his mantra.
As Prime Minister, Starmer will face significant challenges that his five conservative predecessors and predecessors could not handle. But his greatest concern upon entering 10 Downing Street is his two teenage children, whom he kept out of the campaign: "They are at a difficult age," he said. "My only fear is how it will affect them."
- The upcoming British House of Commons election could potentially see the Labor Party, led by Keir Starmer, gain a record number of seats, potentially bringing an end to the 14-year rule of the Conservative Party in Great Britain, headed by Rishi Sunak.
- Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labor Party, has often been criticized, but Keir Starmer's pragmatic approach and promises of returning seriousness to British politics have gained him support, even among those who opposed Corbyn.
- Amidst the politics of Great Britain, the Conservative Party's Rishi Sunak and the Labor Party's Keir Starmer are the central figures in the upcoming House of Commons election, with Starmer's position as a latecomer to politics and his focus on human rights and reputation as a pragmatic manager setting him apart.
