24 things to know about UK PM elect Keir Starmer
The Labour Party, headed by Keir Starmer, on Friday won an outright majority in the lower house of the British parliament.
The Labour Party swept to power after crossing the 326-seat threshold for a working majority in the House of Commons.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat in the general election minutes before any media outlet declared that the threshold of 326 seats was reached.
Here are 24 things to know about UK PM elect Keir Starmer
1. Sir Keir Rodney Starmer was born in Southwark, London on September 2, 1962.
2. He grew up in the town of Oxted in Surrey.
3. He was the second of the four children of Josephine (née Baker), a nurse, and Rodney Starmer, a toolmaker. His mother had Still’s disease.
4. His parents were Labour Party supporters, and reportedly named him after the party’s first parliamentary leader, Keir Hardie, though Starmer said in 2015 that he did not know whether this is true.
5. He is a British politician and barrister.
6. He has served as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.
7. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024 and as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
8. Starmer will succeed Rishi Sunak as prime minister following the Labour Party’s victory at the 2024 general election.
9. Starmer attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School which became a private school while he was a student.
10. He was politically active from an early age and joined the Labour Party Young Socialists at the age of 16.
11. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986.
12. After being called to the bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights.
13. He served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002, later citing his work on policing in Northern Ireland as being a key influence on his decision to pursue a political career.
14. During his time as Director of Public Prosecutions, he dealt with a number of major cases including the Stephen Lawrence murder case.
15. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.
16. Starmer was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election.
17. As a backbencher, he supported the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum.
18. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Immigration by Jeremy Corbyn but resigned from this role in June 2016 as part of the wider shadow cabinet resignations in protest of Corbyn’s leadership. Accepting a new post under Corbyn that year as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Starmer advocated a proposed second referendum on Brexit. Following Corbyn’s resignation after Labour’s defeat at the 2019 general election, Starmer succeeded him as party leader by winning the 2020 leadership election on a left-wing platform.
19. As the Labour leader, Starmer has repositioned the party away from the left and toward the political centre.
20. He has emphasised the importance of eliminating antisemitism within the party, a controversial issue during Corbyn’s leadership.
21. His supporters have praised him for his antisemitism reforms and for helping to improve Labour’s credibility with the electorate in the aftermath of the previous leadership, while his critics have accused him of unfairly treating leftist Labour members.
22. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.
23. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule.
24. His landslide victory was similar to the one achieved by Tony Blair at the 1997 general election, the last time a Labour opposition ousted a Conservative government.
[TheNation]
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