 "British opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer greets a person as he attends a Labour general election campaign event, in Norton Canes, Britain July 2, 2024. Source: File Image / REUTERS.")
Keir Starmer is not your regular politician.
For once, Starmer was first elected to the parliament just nine years ago. He is not career politician. He is a lawyer who made his name pursuing human rights cases and as a public prosecutor.
The unlikely politician has turned around the fortunes of the Labour. From suffering the worst defeat in nearly 90 years under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Starmer has now led the Labour to a landslide victory. Exit polls say the Labour could win more than 400 of the 650 seats.
At 61, Starmer will be the oldest man to be the British prime minister in decades.
More pragmatic than an idealogue
Starmer’s politics is defined by pragmatism instead of blind ideological commitment.
Instead of typical leftist ideological agenda, Starmer’s electoral platform brought together pragmatism with leftist values. He has said his Labour government would be business friendly. At the same time, he has said he would pursue a green agenda and double down on British climate goals and stop fossil fuel projects in the North Sea.
Starmer purged the left-wing of his party and brought it to the centre to make it much more acceptable to the masses. In doing so, he did ruffle some feathers as his stance on the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel miffed some supporters of the party. He has also stood against the rising antisemitism in the UK in the wake of the attack on Israel and also addressed the antisemitism within the Labour Party that was deemed a big problem under radical leader Corbyn.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDuring the campaign, Starmer said the British politics must return to being a service and said he would put the country first and the party second. The messaging appears to have worked as the Labour under him has routed the Conservatives after 14 years of rule.
Critics, however, have said that Starmer does not have a clear plan to set the country straight. They have also criticised him as an opportunist who has changed his stance on issues over time.
Most working-class Labour leader
Starmer is the most working-class British Labour leader in a long time. He has often invoked these credentials as he has stressed in the campaign that he is the son of a toolmaker father and a nurse mother.
Starmer’s critics, however, have flagged that he is a career lawyer and, as he has been knighted, is very much a part of the London’s elite club as any other aristocrat or establishment politician.
From an ace lawyer to a knight
A knight, a top lawyer, and a leader of the winning party, but Starmer still lacks the charisma that Boris Johnson or Tony Blair once had or the young-blood charm that Rishi Sunak brought to office.
Instead, Starmer brings a controversy-free face and a pragmatic approach to the table that the voters have counted on to set the country straight.
As a lawyer, Starmer worked on leftist causes, defending trade unions, anti-McDonald’s activists and death row inmates abroad, according to AFP.
Starmer has also worked with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
It was in 2003 that he shocked friends and colleagues by taking up a government position. As a government lawyer, he made sure that Northern Ireland complied with human rights legislation, according to the agency.
In 2008, Starmer was appointed the chief of public prosecutions for England and Wales under Labour’s Gordon Brown’s prime ministership.
During 2008-2013, Starmer oversaw the prosecution of MPs for abusing their expenses, journalists for phone-hacking, and young rioters involved in unrest across England, according to the agency.
In 2015, Starmer was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Even though he is a knight and is publicly addressed as “sir”, he barely uses the title.