The first in his family with university studies

Keir Starmer (whose name is pronounced Kia), was born on September 2, 1962 in London, but grew up in the small town of Oxted, in the county of Surrey.

According to the entry dedicated to the politician in Encyclopedia Britannicahis parents named him in memory of the first Labor parliamentary leader, Keir Hardie.

His official biography highlights that his family was working class, his father was an employee at an equipment factory and his mother was a public health nurse. The mother, in addition to working for him National Health Service (NHSabbreviation in English), affected by a rare disease, which instilled in the candidate a deep sense of gratitude towards public health.

Starmer became the first member of his family to obtain a university degree. He graduated in Law from the University of Leeds and obtained a postgraduate degree from Oxford. In 1987 he started working as a lawyer.

In 2007 he married and had two children. His wife, Victoria, is a devout Jew and has family in Tel Aviv. He is also a lawyer and currently works for the NHS.

Human rights and tax lawyer

Starmer’s career as a lawyer has been dedicated to employment law and human rights. Between 2003 and 2008 he was legal advisor to the Police of Northern Ireland, with one of his aims being to improve coexistence following the Good Friday Agreement.

He then worked as a prosecutor, becoming Chief prosecutor of England and Wales between 2008 and 2013.

As a prosecutor, Starmer has had to deal with controversial cases such as the sexual harassment allegations against the presenter BBC Jimmy Saville, and was responsible for introducing several changes in procedures in sexual harassment and assault cases to avoid cases of impunity and re-victimization of whistleblowers.

Starmer was made a Knight of the British Empire in 2014 for his work in the Prosecutor’s Office, although he chose not to use the title.

Enter politics

Close to the Labor Party since his youth, Starmer entered politics in 2014 and a year later he was elected MP for the Holborn and Saint Pancras constituency. He became “minister” for immigration issues in the “shadow government” (shadow cabineta kind of alternative opposition government) of Jeremy Corbyn.

In 2016 he resigned in protest at the party leader’s attitude towards Brexitbut Corbyn trusted him again and appointed him as shadow minister Brexit. Starmer supports calls for a second referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union, in which a “remain” option should be considered, and this opposes a “hard” exit without an agreement with the EU.

Opposition leaders Johnson, Truss and Sunak

Corbyn announced his resignation as Labor leader in 2019, following the worst election result in 80 years, and amid accusations of condoning anti-Semitic views in the party.

On April 4 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, Starmer wins the primary and he took over the party and the opposition to the conservative prime minister Boris Johnson.

His difficulties as leader of the opposition were magnified by the weakness of his leaders story and a split in the Conservative Party, not for its own sake. Especially against Boris Johnson. Johnson’s pandemic scandal (so-called party gate) offers Starmer a platform to attack him.

Mandate from Liz Trus (the UK’s shortest serving head of government) and current prime minister, Rishi Sunakwho have not succeeded in defeating the conservatives. Labor has made progress in every by-election or local election. Inflation, supply difficulties after Brexitthe migration crisis with the arrival of ships through the English Channel, problems in the NHS… these and other factors have worked in Starmer’s favour.

At the same time, the Labor leader has struggled to move his party towards the centre, and there he has clashed with the far-left branch of the party. This is the case of the deputy Diane Abbottwho has held the seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 and was the first black woman elected to Parliament. Starmer has tried to get Abbott not to stand, earning him the hostility of the left but possibly voting with the center and right.

In some aspects, such as immigration, the Labor leader leans more to the right, supporting restrictive policies in accepting migrants and refugees.

Under Starmer, Labor has also shifted to the policy Palestine-Israel conflict. While Corbyn has been a pro-Palestinian activist for years, and was criticized for allowing anti-Semitic opinions in his party, his successor has been careful to emphasize that he will not tolerate such attitudes and has declared his support for Israel. Starmer has called himself a “Zionist” in several interviews, and Israeli newspapers The Age of Israel he celebrated his victory in the Labor Party primaries as a “Zionist with a Jewish wife”.

Labour’s programme, presented on 13 June, committed to “increasing economic growth”, keeping “taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible” to end the “conservative chaos” and “rebuild the country”.