If Labor wins early parliamentary elections, Sir Keir Starmer could become the new Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Britain's July 4 vote could unseat the Conservatives after 14 years in power and hand control to the leader of the United Kingdom's second largest party — Sir Keir Starmer. He could become the seventh Labor leader in the last hundred years.
ICTV Facts tell what is known about Sir Keir Starmer and facts from his biography.
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Keir Starmer — biography of the Labor leader
Keir Starmer was born on September 2, 1962, the second of four children in a family of a tool manufacturer and a nurse. His parents were staunch leftists and named their son after Keir Hardie, who founded the Labor Party in 1893. The future politician grew up in a town near London.
As a child, Starmer attended London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he had a scholarship, and was also an accomplished flautist. Moreover, he also received the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award.
He was the first member of his family to go to college. Starmer graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in Law and then studied law at Oxford University College, where he received a BA in Civil Law.
In 1987 he was admitted to the bar. Stamer specialized in human rights. Until 1990 he worked at the human rights group Liberty, then at Doughty Street Chambers, working on human rights.
He has also been a fellow of the Human Rights Center at the University of Essex, a human rights adviser to the Association of Chief Police Officers and a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Police Review Board.
During Starmer's childhood, his family had money problems. When their house was flooded, years passed before they were able to make repairs, and when Cyrus hit a window with a soccer ball, his father boarded it up because there was no money for glazing.
— There were hard times. I know what runaway inflation is like, how the rising cost of living can make you fear the postman walking down the street: Will he bring another bill we can't afford? — he said in a speech at the start of his election campaign.
Starmer often emphasizes his humble and simple origins — in contrast to the Conservative leader and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is a former Goldman Sachs banker and married to the daughter of a billionaire.
The politician is a big football fan and still enjoys playing the game on weekends. He also — big fan of Arsenal football club. He and his wife Victoria, who works in occupational safety, have two teenage children whom they try to keep out of the public eye.
Photo: Getty Images
In 2008, Starmer headed the Crown Prosecution Service, where he worked until the end of 2013. In that role, he ordered changes to how harassment cases are handled to make them fairer to victims. For this work he received the title of Sir (became a Knight of the Honorable Order of the Bath).
Starmer entered politics at the age of 50 and was elected to parliament in 2015. He often disagreed with party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a committed socialist, and even resigned from the party leadership over disagreements, but became Labour's Brexit spokesman under Corbyn's leadership.
After Labour, led by Corbyn, lost the elections in 2017 and 2019 (the latter result was the party's worst since 1935), the party elected Starmer as its leader. He was a strong opponent of Britain's decision to leave the European Union, but now says a Labor government will not seek to change that decision.
In February 2023, Keir Starmer made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and promised that Ukraine would always have “unwavering support” his party. This was his first visit to the capital of Ukraine.
