Daily Times

A pragmatic, safe pair of hands or an uninspiring flip-flopper? Labour leader Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer currently on track to become Britain’s next prime minister.

When Starmer took charge of the party three years ago after the disastrous reign of socialist Jeremy Corbyn, he vowed to unite it and get it back on a path to power.

The 61-year-old has moved the main opposition back to the centre ground, quietened dissent among the left, and rooted out anti-Semitism within its ranks, making Labour an electable proposition.

“He has absolutely put Labour in a place where it could win the next general election, and a lot of people thought that was really, really ambitious and quite unlikely,” political scientist Karl Pike told AFP.

Labour heads into its annual conference in Liverpool, northwest England, this weekend enjoying double-digit leads in opinion polls ahead of a general election expected next year. Many observers say that is largely down to chaotic Conservative rule that has resulted in three different prime ministers in four years, following upheaval over Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

A cost-of-living crisis and strikes plaguing several sectors are also seen as contributing to Britons’ desire for change after 13 years of Tory government, rather than overwhelming support for Starmer himself.

He has, in fact, negative approval ratings.

“He’s not an inspirational speaker. I mean, he’s not Tony Blair,” said Steven Fielding, a politics expert at the University of Nottingham and Labour party member.

“(But) I think Starmer has calculated that if he just presents himself as a sober, serious, boring person after all of the nonsense that’s gone on before… that will just be about enough to get through.”

Starmer, a keen footballer and Arsenal fan, was born in London, one of four siblings, to a toolmaker father and a nurse mother, both of whom were animal lovers who rescued donkeys. “Whenever one of us left home, they replaced us with a donkey,” he has joked.

His unusual first name was his socialist parents’ tribute to Labour’s founding father, Keir Hardie. At school he had violin lessons with Norman Cook, the former Housemartins bassist who became DJ Fatboy Slim.

After legal studies at the universities of Leeds and Oxford, Starmer turned his attention to radical causes, defending trades unions and anti-McDonald’s activists.

The married father-of-two is friends with fellow human rights lawyer Amal Clooney from their time together at the same legal practice.

In 2003, he began his move to the establishment with a job ensuring police in Northern Ireland complied with human rights legislation.

Five years later, he was appointed director of public prosecutions for England and Wales by the then Labour government.