Daily Times

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer turned-state prosecutor whose ruthless ambition and formidable work ethic look set to propel him to Britain’s highest political office.

The 61-year-old, whose unusual first name was his socialist parents’ tribute to Labour’s founding father Keir Hardie, is also the centre-left party’s most working-class leader in decades.

“My dad was a toolmaker, my mum was a nurse,” Starmer tells voters often, countering depictions by opponents that the one-time “lefty lawyer” is the epitome of a smug, liberal, London elite.

With his grey quiff and black-rimmed glasses, Starmer remains an enigma in the eyes of many voters, who will likely hand him the keys to 10 Downing Street in a general election on July 4 nonetheless.

Detractors label him an uninspiring opportunist, but supporters insist he is a managerial pragmatist who will approach being prime minister the same way he did his legal career: tirelessly and forensically.

“Politics has to be about service,” Starmer said in a recent campaign speech, repeating his mantra to put “country first, party second” following 14 years of Conservative rule under five prime ministers.

Sometimes appearing uncomfortable in the spotlight, the football-crazy Arsenal fan, who came to politics late in life, has struggled to shed his public image as buttoned-up and boring. But the married father-of-two is said to be funny and loyal in private, while his route to the cusp of the premiership is more interesting than he is given credit for.

Background of Starmer

Born on September 2, 1962, Keir Rodney Starmer was raised in a cramped, semi-detached house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father.

He had three siblings, one of whom had learning difficulties. His parents were animal lovers who rescued donkeys.

“Whenever one of us left home, they replaced us with a donkey,” Starmer has joked.

A talented musician, Starmer had violin lessons at school with Norman Cook, the former Housemartins bassist who became DJ Fatboy Slim, and attended a prestigious London music school at weekends.

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