Will Keir Starmer deliver the change that Britain urgently seeks?
The predicament of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been grim since his entry in late 2022. His Conservative Party, known for its 14 years of power based on questionable political moves like austerity, Brexit, and radical economics, has been trailing behind the opposition Labour Party in the polls since around November 2021, and the gap has only grown since.
Barring any unexpected events, Labour leader Keir Starmer is expected to walk through the iconic black door of 10 Downing Street in less than three weeks.
Starmer promises to be the change agent that Britain needs. He has promised to stimulate the country's economy by revising planning laws and investing in a new industrial strategy. He has justifiably pledged to establish a national wealth fund with £7.3 billion ($9.3bn) of public money to finance the transition to net zero emissions.
An £8.3bn publicly-owned energy company, Great British Energy, will manage the decarbonization of the United Kingdom’s energy grid by 2030. Starmer assures that this can be accomplished without raising income taxes, though no commitments have been made regarding other levies, such as capital gains tax, which is paid on income from selling assets, including property and shares.
The remainder of the Labour manifesto mixes moderate centrism with soft socialism. It includes imposing taxes on private schools to fund state education and windfall levies on energy companies to finance the shift to clean energy. Additionally, there are commitments on workers' rights, reducing healthcare wait times, and controlling immigration.
Detractors on the right argue that Starmer may need to raise taxes to fund his plans, while critics on the left argue that his manifesto is not bold or ambitious enough to change Britain for the better.
This is a Britain that has witnessed record-high inflation over the past two years, skyrocketing interest rates, a sinking pound against the dollar, a continuing cost-of-living crisis, the longest wait times for medical operations in recent history, and eight years of political turmoil following the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
In summary, this is a lengthy list of challenges to address within a five-year term when public finances are in disarray. The question for Starmer, if he wins, is whether the mess is too big for him to handle and whether he possesses the political acumen to bring about the change he has promised.
Who is Keir Starmer?
On paper, the 61-year-old Starmer appears to be a classic establishment figure.
Once a leading human rights attorney, he became the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2008, overseeing the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales – a high-profile position for which he was knighted, making him the first Labour leader to enter the role with the prefix "Sir" to his name.
Starmer, however, comes from comparatively humble beginnings. Born in 1962, he grew up in a small town south of London. His father was a factory worker, and his mother was a nurse who dealt with severe physical disabilities, which ultimately led to one of her legs being amputated.
While Starmer has never claimed to have experience poverty, he has spoken of financial hardships that affected his family, as well as the learning difficulties that held back his younger brother.
It is evident that these early experiences have influenced Starmer's politics. He has spoken about noticing people looking down on his father for working in a factory or bullying his brother. His parents were politically active, naming their eldest after the first Labour leader in parliament, Keir Hardie.
“He’s the first Labour leader in a generation to talk about class and snobbery,” Tom Baldwin, author of “Keir Starmer: The Biography,” told CNN. “This doesn’t make him a class warrior but someone who understands the different layers of pride, aspiration and guilt... He feels the sting of the disrespect his dad experienced... He talks a lot about his sister who has led a precarious life as a carer, having not gone to university,” Baldwin added.
Starmer chose to study law at the University of Leeds, and subsequently completed a postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford. He initially thought he would have a legal career working for trade unions, but as his politics evolved in line with his studies, he became increasingly interested in human rights.
Starmer, currently spearheading Labour, expelled Corbyn from the party post antisemitism probes during his tenure as leader. Starmer openly admitted supporting Corbyn, knowing he'd lose, even going as far as stating Corbyn would make a better prime minister than Johnson.
But left-wing critics claim Starmer manipulated Corbyn and his faction to win the 2020 leadership, making leftist promises such as nationalizing services, scrapping tuition fees, and reversing Conservative welfare reforms, only to abandon these vows once he obtained power.
James Schneider, Corbyn's ex-communications chief, stated bluntly on CNN, "Starmer isn't principled; his leadership campaign was deceitful. His lack of genuine policies for improving people's lives will lead to disillusionment, potentially feeding the hard right or future people's movements."
Starmer defended himself against accusations of shifting political alignments by claiming he prioritizes country over party and that change is only possible when one wields power.
Whether Starmer's plan is viewed as uninspiring, deceptive, or what Britain requires, policy implementation demands political and personal capital.
Dominic Grieve, a Conservative politician who served as attorney general during Starmer's DPP tenure, praises Starmer's efficiency and effectiveness during a tough period. Grieve asserted that Starmer's ability to manage effectively was due to his lack of political baggage and ideology.
However, his adversaries, from both sides of the political spectrum, view this trait as a weakness. The right sees Starmer as a manipulative figure who'd ally with Corbyn, an anti-NATO and repeatedly accused terrorist sympathizer, for personal gain and posing a threat to Britain. The left perceives Starmer as insufficiently radical, unlikely to bring about transformative change and indistinguishable from a conservative leader once in office.
If polls are accurate, Starmer is poised to win a unprecedented majority in the House of Commons. Yet, the future remains complex. Given Britain's fiscal situation, the circumstances surrounding Labour's probable victory, and Starmer's own personality traits, he may not have the unchecked authority a leader with a weak opposition typically enjoys.
An inability to translate parliamentary power into tangible outcomes amidst voter cries for change could result in Starmer's moderate, safe-first center-left program being perceived as equally risky as the conservative moves of the past 14 years.
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Starmer's policies to revitalize the British economy extend beyond Europe, but his views on Europe are important to understand. Starmer has expressed a commitment to maintain a strong relationship with the European Union, recognizing the importance of the EU market for the UK's trade and economic growth.
In the context of climate change, Europe has been at the forefront of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to renewable energy sources. Starmer, with his pledge to decarbonize the UK's energy grid by 2030, could align Britain's goals with those of Europe to create a broader, united front in the global fight against climate change.
