Keir Starmer is one of the top three candidates in the running for the Labour Leadership election and is also seen as one of the more centrist voices within Labour, he even protested against Jeremy Corbyn on June 2016 by resigning from Shadow Minister of State for Immigration. Despite this he was still later re-appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Brexit Secretary which allowed him to become a popular figure within the party and among supporters. Others though have noted his support for certain Corbynist policies such as giving EU citizen’s a vote in UK elections, with some also dubbing him a Corbyn continuity candidate, at least in part.
Featured Photo: By Chris McAndrew, License.
He was born to a working-class family and has said they didn’t have much money. His dad was a toolmaker and his mum a nurse who is severely disabled and has struggled with health problems for half her life, which Keir Starmer also said has inspired him in his fields. Keir was named after Keir Hardie who was a Scottish trade unionist and socialist politician who founded the Labour Party and served as its first parliamentary leader. Starmer was the only sibling in his family to make it into University and he studied law at Leeds and Oxford Universities where he got a first-class Bachelor of Laws from Leeds in 1985 and a Bachelor of Civil Law from Oxford in 1986. He then went on to become a barrister and a bencher.
One of his most well-known cases was the McLibel Case where he helped defend two environmental activists who were being sued by Mcdonalds over a factsheet that was critical of the company. The case was also made into a documentary film called McLibel which Starmer was interviewed for. The case led to Mcdonalds being awarded £40,000 which the company said it did not plan to collect. The European Court of Justice later awarded £57,000 against the UK government saying that Article 6, right to a fair trial and 10, right to freedom of expression of the European Convention on Human Rights was broken in the previous libel case.
Before being elected as an MP for the first time in 2015 he acted as a defense lawyer who specialized in human rights issues and he also advocated and worked to outlaw the death penalty in Africa and the Caribbean including working to represent many on death row. He has been described as a radical lawyer during his time, including contesting the governments withdrawal of subsistence payments to asylum seekers and has showed compassion for those who have sought assisted suicide elsewhere as it is not legal in the UK. Opponents have labeled him a “bleeding heart liberal” when he was Director of Public Prosecutions and accused him of not being tough enough on crime, but Keir Starmer has rebuffed that phrase and said the agenda of protecting people against crime, making sure things are properly investigated and treating victims and defendants with dignity is not something you can reduce to those terms.
Keir Starmer became Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013 before he was elected as an MP. He was appointed to the position by Patricia Scotland during her time as Attorney General under Gordon Brown’s government. During his time in the job he made a number of major decisions which have included choosing not to prosecute Damian Green, a Conservative Party MP over government leaks, a choice not to re-open the News of the World phone-tapping case over new information from The Guardian and a case on police conduct over the death of Ian Tomlinson at a G20 protest.
Keir Starmer announced in July 2010 that the police officer responsible, Simon Harwood, would not be prosecuted for murder, leading to the victim’s family to allege a police cover-up. Later on, an inquest found that Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed leading Starmer to prosecute Harwood with manslaughter, but was later acquitted in July 2012 and was sacked by the police for gross misconduct.
One of the most significant prosecutions under Keir Starmer was that of then Energy Secretary Chris Huhne of the Liberal Democrats and his former wife Vicky Pryce in February 2012, leading to Huhne being the first British Cabinet member in history to resign over criminal proceedings. They were prosecuted for perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case where Vicky Pryce claimed she was the one driving so that she claimed the license penalty points, preventing Chris Huhne against being banned from driving, they were convicted and sentenced to a short time in prison. Starmer said that “where there is sufficient evidence we do not shy away from prosecuting politicians” in relation to this case.
A year after Keir Starmer stepped down from the above position, he received a knighthood for his services to law with a notable focus on his work to abolish the death penalty in several Caribbean countries. Keir Starmer has said though that he doesn’t like titles, they appear to give him a sense of discomfort and prefers to be referred to without them. He also didn’t like to be referred to as “Director” during his time in the job.
After his time spent as the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Labour Party announced that Keir Starmer would launch an enquiry into changing the law to give further protection to victims of rape and child abuse from things such as harsh questioning in court cases. Starmer would recommend legislative changes to the party to put into effect if they were to win the 2015 election. The now politician has previously said that the justice system needs to be more fit for witnesses and victims in these cases, which it is not. Further on the Justice System itself Keir Starmer has said many times he believes it needs to be brought into the 21st Century.
Keir Starmer decided to stand as a Labour candidate in the 2015 General Election where he was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Holborn and St. Pancras of which he has held on to for two further elections. During the 2015 Labour Leadership election he declined to stand citing lack of experience and instead opted to support Andy Burnham for leader, rather than Jeremy Corbyn who later won.
Due to Starmer’s already high esteem with the party over his work as Director of Public Prosecutions and his enquiry into protection for victims, it didn’t take him long to start climbing the rungs of the Labour party as one of its MPs, with him soon reaching the Shadow Cabinet. Mirroring his human rights work, he was appointed as a Minister of State for Immigration in the Shadow Home Office by Jeremy Corbyn in September 2015 shortly after his election as leader, but he was in this position for less than a year after he resigned in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, after the loss of remain in the EU referendum. Keir Starmer is a stanch proponent of remaining in the European Union and many believed that Corbyn didn’t do enough to campaign for remain.
Despite this hiccup between Corbyn and Starmer, he was still eventually appointed back to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Brexit Secretary in October 2016 of which he has remained in since and has enabled him to gain considerable support and popularity. His appointment to this was seen as a good move by many due to Starmers knowledge of the law which enabled him to more adequately hold the government to account over its handling of brexit and it was seen as a victory for Starmer when Theresa May decided to release the governments brexit plan in December 2016, which Starmer had strongly advocated for. Starmer also advocated for the party to campaign for a popular vote on brexit, while Corbyn continued to remain silent on the topic.
After Labour’s big election loss in the last election some of Corbyn’s allies decided to blame Keir Starmer over the loss of Labour leave seats to the Conservatives down to his strong pro-remain stance. Keir Starmer has said he is running in an attempt to rebuild the Labour Party and restore trust which he says needs to be done fast.
It didn’t take long for Keir Starmer to reach far beyond the required backing of at least 22 MPs, being the first leadership candidate to reach the threshold and was the first to get the backing of a trade union. Most of his backers were among the MPs that were opposed to Corbyn in 2016 and did not get a single Corbyn 2016 backer to help him reach the threshold. Many of the 2016 Corbyn backers appeared to be rounding up behind Rebecca Long-Bailey, who has been branded the Corbyn continuity candidate, and so it appears the party is still fractured.
Keir Starmer later became the first candidate to receive backing from three trade unions and make it on to the Leadership ballot, later followed by Lisa Nandy who is being seen as one of the top three, alongside Rebecca Long-Bailey who is also expected to make it on to the ballot, which they did. Starmer though by far got the highest backing of CLPs.
Starmer has also given his support for a green new deal and support for radically changing the economy to help trade unions and those left behind. Staying true to his past Keir Starmer has also said there should be a more human rights focused approach to foreign policy and international relations and says that the US President should be held to account over the situation in Iran, referring to the killing of Iran’s top General, Qassem Soleimani. Starmer has also previously said that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal.
He has also said in relation to the leadership election that radicalism should still be retained within the Labour Party while making itself relevant to people’s everyday lives. It is thought that this pitch is directed more at grassroots party members who are generally seen as more left-wing than the Labour MPs and who also determine the ultimate outcome of the leadership election.
He has also talked about delivering a programme to tackle low pay, insecure work, to rebuild public services, empower communities and take on the climate crisis.
One of Keir Starmer’s personal weaknesses appears to be his apparent plainness and boring persona, noted among many in the media who have grilled him.
Polls from YouGov so far show that Keir Starmer is the favourite to win the leadership race, although a poll from Survation had put Long-Bailey above Keir Starmer. But this far out the polls do not mean too much and it is still all to play for. Further polls have continued to show Starmer ahead, including with Labour members, the one’s who will actually be voting, although people can also pay a fee to vote instead of having to be a full member. So far as it stands it seems Keir Starmer is the safest bet for winning the leadership race, but when it comes to leadership elections sometimes the unexpected is the expected.
The next Labour Candidate profile will be out the following Wednesday and the final one the Wednesday after that. So stay tuned.
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