 "British opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer reacts as the counting of votes continues during the UK election in London, Britain. The Labour is poised to secure a landslide victory. The party is expected to win 410 out of 650 seats. Reuters")
In 2019, the Labour Party in the United Kingdom saw its worst electoral defeat in over 80 years. Fast forward to 2024 and today, the party is looking at a landslide win at the polls — exit polls have predicted the party will secure 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, with the Tories managing only 131.
Behind this successful turnaround is none other than the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer , who according to an AP report is known to be “dutiful, managerial and a bit dull”.
It seems that Starmer, who entered the Parliament merely a decade ago and took charge of the Labour in 2020, has made the party electable — and how.
Let’s take a closer look at how Starmer has transformed the Labour Party, and in turn, helped it to secure a massive win at the polls.
No drama Starmer
Starmer has always focused on his humble roots. Brought up in a working-class family in Surrey outside London, he was the first in his family to graduate, first from Leeds University and then in law from Oxford.
In 1987, he became a lawyer, focusing on human rights and travelled to the Caribbean and Africa, where he argued for prisoners who faced the death penalty. His legal career saw him rise to the post of Director of Public Prosecutions, the most senior criminal prosecutor in England and Wales.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIt was only in 2015 that Starmer stood for elections from Holborn and St Pancras in North London and won.
It is reported that Starmer often clashed with the previous chief of the Labour, Jeremy Corbyn . Following the 2019 election debacle, Starmer replaced Corbyn as the leader of the party and insisted then that he would bring together Labour’s disparate factions.
In his years as leader, 60-year-old Starmer has carried out a radical realignment of the Labour party. He has sidelined the left, taken over the machinery of the party and driven it on to the political ground he thinks can win an election. As Josh Simons, director of the influential think-tank Labour Together, told the _Financial Time_s: “In no time at all, Labour has gone from electoral arsenic to well-oiled machine. At the heart of that is Keir’s capacity to improve outcomes by reforming institutions.”
In fact, critics say that Starmer’s been “relentless” and “ruthless” in his attempt to reinvent Labour. Others use words like “boring” or “dull.” Surprisingly, his own PR team pushes the line that he is “no-drama Starmer.”
Consolidation of power
After taking charge of the Labour Party, one of Starmer’s first move was to nurture a new model army of backbenchers. Katy Balls, the political editor of _The Spectato_r notes that his team have made it their business to know the politics of local Labour branches.
Moreover, Starmer has removed candidates from the party who are suspected of holding radical left views and gathered around him a collection of centrist or “ideological” candidates.
In May, veteran Labour politician Diane Abbott had accused the party of carrying out a “cull” of left-wing candidates.
Another left-wing candidate — Faiza Shaheen — was also banned from standing for Labour after complaints she “liked” social media posts that allegedly downplayed antisemitism.
When asked about the so-called purge, Starmer had denied it, saying he only wanted “the highest quality candidates” to stand.
Taking centre stage
As Starmer tightened control on the workings of the party and purged it of extreme left elements, he has also shifted the party from left to the centre. This even required him to do a volte-face. Initially, he had made 10 pledges that aligned with Corbyn’s agenda, including pledges to abolish tuition fees, keep public services in public hands, a higher income tax for the top five per cent. However, Starmer has distanced himself from several of these promises.
While releasing the manifesto of the party, Starmer had said: “Welcome to a changed Labour Party.”
The Labour leader has moved on from some of his previous commitments. For instance, he had promised to “end the national scandal of spiralling student debt” with a vow to abolish tuition fees. However, now Starmer has since changed his stance, saying the country found itself in a “different financial situation”.
On the issue of income tax, Starmer had vowed to reintroduce the top tax band for the country’s highest earners last September. But in an interview with the Telegraph, Starmer then suggested he wanted to lower taxation, but was not “looking to the lever of taxation”.
Labour’s stance on migrants has also changed under Starmer. When standing to become leader, Starmer said: “I want families to be able to live together, whether that’s in Europe or here… We have to make the case for freedom of movement.” But he has since ruled out a return to open borders as the UK has already left the EU.
When asked about his party’s manifesto and its vows appearing to be more right than left, he had said in May: “The British people need a politics which gets the value of respect and service, and uses it to deliver stability and change. If that sounds conservative, then let me tell you: I don’t care.”
As some note with this election and its stunning win, Starmer has completed the transformation of the Labour. But will he be able to remake the country? That, after all, is a harder task.
With inputs from agencies