Keir Starmer: Who is Labour’s next leader?
He entered Parliament as MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015 and was quickly elevated to the frontbench.
Sir Keir Starmer was named after a founder of the party he has now been elected to lead.
The human rights lawyer, who says he has spent his life fighting injustice, was raised in Southwark, south London, by toolmaker father Rodney and nurse mother Josephine.
Labour supporters, they named him after Keir Hardie, the party’s first parliamentary leader.
But his decision to accept a knighthood in 2014 made it trickier for Sir Keir to shake off perceptions of privilege – and allegations he is too middle class to speak to Labour’s heartlands.
His CV includes co-founding the renowned Doughty Street Chambers and advising the Policing Board to ensure the Police Service of Northern Ireland complied with human rights laws.
He entered Parliament as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015, speaking about the importance of equal rights for all in his maiden speech.
Sir Keir, 57, was quickly elevated to the frontbench, serving as a shadow Home Office minister before being promoted to shadow Brexit secretary soon after the EU referendum in 2016.
Sir Keir was instrumental in getting Labour to back a second referendum and said, at the party’s conference in 2018, that “nobody is ruling out” an option for Remain being included on the ballot paper.
He has since said that the issue is settled, but has refused to rule out campaigning for Britain to return to the EU in the long term.
He has also vowed to introduce a Prevention of Military Intervention Act if he becomes PM, to ensure Britain could only go to war if the Commons agreed.
Sir Keir lost his mother-in-law during the leadership race, but despite the personal challenges, his campaign retained momentum throughout.
He is married to Victoria, a solicitor, and the couple have two children.
