The Prime Minister In Waiting – but who really is Keir Starmer?

Published

2 months ago

February 25, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer is a Prime Minister In Waiting.

The job is not in the bag unless and until the votes have been cast in Labour‘s favour – as he and his close advisers are the first to point out.

But all the circumstantial evidence from elections and opinion polls suggests that Starmer is far and away the person most likely to be the occupant of 10 Downing Street after the general election due in the next 11 months.

PMIW is not a status conferred on all opposition leaders. Interest only peaks when a change of government is in the air. Scrutiny turns from the struggling incumbent prime minister to new hope.

Tony Blair, before 1997, and David Cameron, before 2010, both basked in the attention.

Starmer is less comfortable in the spotlight. Yet, in spite of his reticence, at the equivalent stage in his pursuit of power he is more of an odds-on favourite to take over the government than Blair or Cameron ever were.

So, who is Sir Keir Starmer, the UK’s likely next prime minister? A flurry of interviews and profiles are all part of the full PMIW treatment, topped off by a campaign biography of the candidate.

On cue, Keir Starmer: The Biography is published next week. The blurb insists the book is “authoritative – not authorised”, but it is based on “many hours of interviews” with Sir Keir, his family, friends and close colleagues.

The original plan was for Tom Baldwin, a Times journalist turned spokesman for then Labour leader Ed Miliband, to ghost write a Starmer autobiography. With typical modesty, Starmer abandoned that idea and decided to leave Baldwin to produce his own sympathetic portrait independently.

The book was “written”, Baldwin says, “with the respect a serious grown-up leader deserves”.

A lot changes when a political leader becomes a PMIW. At the recent Munich Defence Conference, the diaries of foreign leaders quickly clear if for a meeting with the coming man.

Starmer’s dance card there included US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and heads of government of Germany, Finland, Estonia and Ireland.

Rishi Sunak did not attend. David Cameron and Grant Shapps represented the UK government.

As is normal practice before a general election, the opposition have been granted access to senior civil servants to discuss their plans for government if they win.

These activities are being scrutinised closely, especially when they involved Sue Gray, the widely feared former civil service enforcer who is now Starmer’s chief of staff.

Gray’s name was linked – inaccurately and inflammatorily – to the talks with Speaker Hoyle over the Israel-Gaza votes in the Commons. Fallout is still crashing down from Hoyle’s decision to break with precedent.

Meanwhile, rightly or wrongly, the UK parliament’s agreed position on “an immediate ceasefire” is the amendment, slowly and painfully put together by the leader of the opposition.

For all the sound and fury, the tectonic plates under British government seem to have shifted prematurely on this foreign policy matter.

One recurring feature of Starmer’s life story is that he has been “a lucky general”, as Napoleon put it.

Circumstances have often gone in his favour and he has made the best of them, although he has done little or nothing to bring them about.

He owes his PMIW standing in large part by default to the self-destructive missteps of recent Conservative governments.

Baldwin cannot take his thoroughly researched book past the start of this campaign year into contemporary events.

He can tell the reader a great deal about how Starmer got here and delve into his life story.

Starmer habitually tags his public appearances with the terse summary “my mother was a nurse, my dad was a toolmaker, money was short, the telephone was sometimes cut off”.

This sends out a signal to Britain’s class-conscious society that first impressions are wrong about The Right Honourable Keir Starmer KC MP.

Starmer is neither “posh” nor a hereditary baronet, but he is hoping to emulate Labour’s election winning trio of Prime Ministers Attlee, Wilson and Blair.

The Labour frontbencher Nick Thomas-Symonds has written biographies of Attlee and Wilson and tells Baldwin that “Keir is far more working class than either of them, not only in terms of the background alone but because it’s combined with a defining story of aspiration”.

Starmer will be the first prime minister since Gordon Brown not to have been an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, although after Leeds University he continued his upward trajectory there as a post-graduate.

He was the only one of his siblings to go to a selective grammar school in Reigate.

The only time his father praised him, he said he was proud of him passing the 11-plus, later adding that he was also as proud of his brother, who had learning difficulties.

His childhood was happy, but hard graft. His father Ron was remote and his mother suffered from a debilitating illness. Starmer flourished nonetheless.

He was a key player in local amateur football teams and won a flute scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music.

In words that could sum up his approach to other aspects of his life, Starmer comments of the Guildhall that there were people there who were “properly gifted… whereas I was just someone who had got to a certain level through practice, repetition and hard work”.

Starmer, who is 62, came late to Westminster politics and was only elected to his seat of Holborn and St Pancras, in inner north London, in 2015.

Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, describes Starmer as “the least political person in politics I know”. Yet his commitment to Labour runs through his life.

His parents named him after the party’s founder Keir Hardie. At election times, their pebble-dashed home was festooned with Labour posters.

Keir joined the Young Socialists as a teenager and canvassed on the doorstep. Members of the public complained to his headmaster about rowdy arguments on the top of the bus to school, often with a classmate who remains a friend, Andrew Sullivan, now a leading liberal conservative commentator in the US.

As a young barrister, Starmer joined the progressive Doughty Street Chambers and sought out human rights cases, especially fighting the death penalty.

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His switch to become Director of Public Prosecutions was a surprise “curveball” for his friends and fellow lawyers.

His motives are not adequately explained in the biography beyond a comment that he thought everyone would benefit from swifter and more efficient justice.

For all his ambition, Starmer applies strict standards to himself. He has nearly quit twice since becoming leader – after Labour lost the Hartlepool byelection to Boris Johnson and when he said he would resign if fined over “beergate”, the drink with party activists during the pandemic.

The overriding image of Starmer from the book is of a determined and pragmatic man, driven to win and prepared to compromise to get there.

He justifies staying in Jeremy Corbyn’s cabinet, calculating that only someone who had served under him would be elected by the membership as the next leader.

Later, his luck held as Corbyn and his close allies disqualified themselves over antisemitism.

Starmer’s friends say the humour, generosity and loyalty of the man they know do not come across from the politician they see on the television.

His biographer makes the interesting observation that public exposure is loosening Sir Keir up.

Labour’s published proposal for transforming Britain is modest, and the economic circumstances are constraining.

For all that, the Prime Minister In Waiting’s last words in the book are “I just want to get things done”.

UK

Bradford: One child dies and four other people taken to hospital after house fire

Published

4 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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Bradford: One child dies and four other people taken to hospital after house fire

A child has died in a house fire in Bradford.

A woman and three other children managed to escape the property and are being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said: “At 1.08 this morning (5 May) police were called by the fire service to reports of a serious house fire on Kingsdale Drive, Bradford.

“A woman and three children managed to escape the property and were taken to hospital for treatment. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

“A fourth child was found inside the address and was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene,” police added.

“A scene is currently in place at the address and police are working with the fire investigators to establish the exact cause of the fire.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

UK

Rishi Sunak urges Tories to stick with his leadership after party suffers shock election losses

Published

10 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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Rishi Sunak urges Tories to stick with his leadership after party suffers shock election losses

Rishi Sunak has urged Tories to stick with his leadership despite the Conservatives’ shock defeat in the West Midlands mayoral election, which capped a dire few days of results for the party.

Sir Keir Starmer called it a “phenomenal result” which was “beyond our expectations” as Labour’s Richard Parker ousted Tory incumbent Andy Street, who had held the role for seven years.

The margin of victory was a cruelly tight 1,508 votes, and compounded Conservative disappointment as it followed another loss to Sadiq Khan in London, who secured a record-breaking third term as the capital’s mayor.

Local elections live
The mayoral election results

“People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour. Our fantastic new mayor Richard Parker stands ready to deliver a fresh start for the West Midlands,” Sir Keir said.

However, in an effort to win back those who had deserted his party over Labour’s stance on Gaza, he added: “I say directly to those who may have voted Labour in the past but felt that on this occasion that they couldn’t that across the West Midlands we are a proud and diverse community.

“I have heard you. I have listened. And I am determined to meet your concerns and to gain your respect and trust again in the future.”

Labour suffered losses to independents and George Galloway’s Worker’s Party of Britain in areas with large Islamic populations as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.

But the party virtually swept the mayoral elections board across England, winning in Liverpool, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham returned to power.

The Tees Valley was the only remaining splash of blue left on the mayoral election map, where Lord Ben Houchen managed to cling to power despite a huge 14.1-point swing to Labour.

Lord Houchen’s victory was also mired by allegations he had sought to distance himself from Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party at large during his campaign.

Losing Mr Street, who is widely respected in the Tory Party and had an impressive track record of bringing investment into the West Midlands, is a body blow to the prime minister.

Despite the drubbing, Mr Sunak urged his party to stick with his leadership and his plan for government.

In a statement, he said: “It’s been disappointing of course to lose dedicated Conservative councillors and Andy Street in the West Midlands, with his track record of providing great public services and attracting significant investment to the area, but that has redoubled my resolve to continue to make progress on our plan.

“So we will continue working as hard as ever to take the fight to Labour and deliver a brighter future for our country.”

However, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, was quick to lay the blame for Tory losses firmly at the door of Number 10.

But she said ousting Mr Sunak “won’t work”, adding: “The hole to dig us out of is the PM’s, and it’s time for him to start shovelling.”

She urged him to adopt “strong leadership, not managerialism” on tax, migration, small boats, and law and order.

But Mr Street took a different view, encouraging the party not to veer to the right.

Asked if he is worried the party is drifting to the right and over-emphasising the threat from Reform UK while “ignoring other voters”, the outgoing mayor told Sky News: “I would definitely not advise that drift.

“The psychology here is really very straightforward, isn’t it? This is the youngest, most diverse, one of the most urban places in Britain, and we’ve done, many would say, extremely well over a consistent period,” Mr Street said.

“The message is clear: winning from that centre ground is what happens.”

Results are in from 106 of the 107 councils in England that held elections on 2 May, and Labour has won 1,140 seats, an increase of more than 200.

The Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100.

The Tories were just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400.

UK

Conservative Andy Street suffers shock loss to Labour in West Midlands mayoral race in blow to Rishi Sunak

Published

21 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Conservative Andy Street suffers shock loss to Labour in West Midlands mayoral race in blow to Rishi Sunak

Tory incumbent Andy Street has suffered a shock defeat to Labour in the West Midlands mayoral election after a partial recount was ordered.

Labour’s Richard Parker beat Mr Street by just 1,508 votes – 0.25% – to deliver a major blow to Rishi Sunak in the key electoral battleground after a hammering in the local elections.

With the race neck-and-neck, in the end it came down to the results in one borough – Labour-supporting Sandwell.

“This is the most important thing I will ever do,” Mr Parker said in his acceptance speech.

“I promise you that I will deliver jobs,” he added.

He told Sky News he would take buses “back into public control” and deliver the “largest programme of social housing we’ve had in this region for more than 40 years”.

And he thanked his predecessor, who he said had “led this region through a number of great challenges and you deserve great credit for that”.

Mr Street told Sky News he was “personally devastated”, had “put my all into this”, and “genuinely believed we were making real progress across the region”.

He said it was “my campaign, totally”, adding: “I’m not going to try to push responsibility anywhere else. There’ll be no sloping shoulders from me.”

He wished his successor “all strength and wisdom”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “phenomenal result” and “beyond our expectations”.

He added: “People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour.

“My changed Labour Party is back in the service of working people, and stands ready to govern.”

Local elections live
The mayoral election results

Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator, said it was a “significant victory”.

She added: “Right across the country people have voted for change and the message is clear – it’s time for a general election and a Labour government to get our country’s future back.”

Labour’s Sadiq Khan has secured a historic third term as London mayor with a convincing win over Conservative rival Susan Hall.

These results will increase pressure on the prime minister, who had been hoping for a repeat of the success enjoyed by Conservative Ben Houchen who held on as the mayor of Tees Valley.

Sam Coates, Sky News’s deputy political editor, said he had seen messages from Conservative MPs’ WhatsApp group.

One from former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, whom Coates said “wants Rishi Sunak to leave”, said: “These results are awful and should be a massive wake-up call.

“If we fight the same campaign in a few months [in the general election] we’ll get the same outcome or rather worse.

“Reform UK standing more candidates will cause greater damage.”

The loss of either the Teesside or West Midlands mayoralties would give Tory rebels who want to change leader a “huge amount of fuel”, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said in the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

Mr Street, who was seeking a third term in office, sought to distance himself from the Conservative brand during his campaign and instead ran on a personal platform.

Sky News recently revealed that Mr Street was sending out election literature with an endorsement from former prime minister Boris Johnson which urged people to “forget about the government”.

His campaign website also made no mention of Mr Sunak on its homepage and was coloured in green rather than Conservative blue.