Keir Starmer: This is the possible new Prime Minister of Great Britain

The Labour Party is on the verge of an election triumph. Polls show the social democratic party well ahead of the conservative Tories, who currently have Rishi Sunak as head of government. For the first time in 14 years, the kingdom could be ruled by a social democratic prime minister: Keir Starmer, 61, Labour leader. But who is the politician? Seven facts about the man who could move into Downing Street Number 10.

1. Working Class Hero

Keir Starmer grew up as the son of a nurse and a toolmaker in a classic working-class family. It was a simple, poor family. The Starmers’ house in the county of Surrey, southwest of London, had holes in the wall. The parents could not afford to repair it, even when the ground floor was under water. They were big supporters of the Labour Party. They reportedly named their son after the party’s founder and first chairman, Keir Hardie.

2. Musical talent

In his early years, Keir Starmer played the flute, recorder, piano and violin. As a teenager, he even got a place in the junior program at a prestigious music school. Keir Starmer went to the same high school as the British DJ and music producer Fatboy Slim. However, the latter expressed doubts about Starmer’s musical talent. The musician told Starmer’s biographer: “Thank God Keir is a far better politician than he was a violinist.”

3. Healthy diet

Keir Starmer lived as a vegetarian for more than 30 years. “I stopped eating meat on principle because I felt it was not right for the body and the planet,” he told Sky News. “But I have to say I miss meat.” He recently started eating fish again, so he is now a pescatarian.

4. Human Rights Lawyer

Keir Starmer is the first in his family to receive a university degree. He studied law in Leeds and Oxford and later became a respected human rights lawyer. He took on many of his cases pro bono, i.e. without payment. This was the case in the infamous McLibel case, a defamation suit brought by McDonald’s against two environmental activists who had accused the fast-food chain of exploiting employees and cruelty to animals in a brochure. The case dragged on for almost ten years, and in the end the activists were ordered to pay McDonald’s £40,000. However, the case had become a disaster for the fast-food chain’s image, which is why the company never demanded the money.

5. Excursion into Communism

After school, Starmer travelled with a friend to Hungary and Slovenia to explore the world behind the Iron Curtain. He later returned to Czechoslovakia and helped restore a memorial to civilians murdered by the Nazis. “I got a glimpse of a totalitarian regime,” he later told his biographer. “I don’t want to live like that.”

6. Politicians against their will?

After working as a human rights lawyer, Keir Starmer served as Director of the Crown Prosecution Service, the British public prosecutor’s office. He had to be persuaded to enter politics by the then leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband. As head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Starmer could not be a member of a party. The Labour leader managed to delay the selection process for the Holborn & St Pancras constituency seat to allow Starmer to stand.

7. Mr. Boring

Keir Starmer is not considered particularly dynamic, he is not someone who gets people excited. His election campaign is unspectacular, his appearances are rather sober. British newspapers have therefore already called him “Mr. Boring”. Keir Starmer replied: “I am running as Prime Minister, not as a ringmaster.”

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