Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Keir Starmer is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since July 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and was previously Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024 and Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

Born in London and raised in Surrey, Starmer attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School which became a private school while he was a student. He was politically active from an early age and joined the Labour Party Young Socialists at the age of 16. 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. After being called to the bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights. 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. During his time as Director of Public Prosecutions, he dealt with a number of major cases including the Stephen Lawrence murder case. 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.

Starmer was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. As a backbencher, he supported the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum. 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 as party leader and opposition leader after Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election, Starmer succeeded him by winning the 2020 leadership election on a left-wing platform. During his time in opposition, Starmer repositioned the party away from the left and toward the political centre, and emphasised the importance of eliminating antisemitism within the party. His supporters 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 accused him of unfairly treating leftist Labour members.

On 5 July 2024, Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule. He succeeded Sunak as prime minister later that day. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.

Family life

Starmer was born on 2 September 1962 in Southwark, London. He grew up in the town of Oxted in Surrey. He was the second of the four children of Josephine (née Baker), a nurse, and Rodney Starmer, a toolmaker. 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.

Starmer met former solicitor and occupational health worker Victoria Alexander in the early 2000s while he was a senior barrister with Doughty Street Chambers. The two eventually became close, becoming engaged in 2004 and married on 6 May 2007 on the Fennes Estate in Essex. The couple have two children: a son, who was born a year after their wedding, and a daughter, born two years after that. Both are being brought up in the Jewish faith of their mother. As of June 2024, the couple reside in Kentish Town, north London. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources

• Booth, William and Karla Adam. "The intriguing real-life story of Keir Starmer, U.K.'s next prime minister." The Washington Post, published 4 July 2025. < link > Accessed 5 July 2025.
• Goddard, Daisy. "We found war veterans and healthcare workers within Keir Starmer's family tree." FindMyPast, published 24 June 2024. < link > Accessed 5 July 2024.
• "Keir Starmer." Wikipedia, revision of 5 July 2024. < link > Accessed 5 July 2024.