AFPThe UK’s new Prime Minister: Keir Starmer
NOS News•Friday, 13:37•Modified Friday, 16:55
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Fleur Launspach
UK and Ireland correspondent
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Fleur Launspach
UK and Ireland correspondent
“My father worked in a factory – he was a toolmakera toolmaker.” These are the now famous words of Labour leader Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister of Great Britain. The word toolmaker This election campaign has been mentioned so often that working class-to reach voters, journalists keep a bingo card for every time Starmer mentions the word.
Keir Starmer does indeed come from a much more ordinary family than some of the elite prime ministers who came before him. But Starmer also has a Sir hang on his name – he was knighted in 2014 for his work as a prosecutor. Many people find it confusing: a working-class kid called Sir, who is this man? With a hefty mandate, Starmer has now moved into the official residence in Downing Street, but many Britons cannot quite figure him out.
His right-hand woman Angela Rayner called him a undersharer: someone who shares not too much, but too little. In the British media, Starmer is often described as cautious and controlled; he sometimes gives somewhat pre-programmed, robotic answers.
Starmer was often dismissed by his opponents in the House of Commons as a “left-wing lawyer”, because the 61-year-old Londoner had already gained fame as a top lawyer before his political career. He worked on cases involving human rights violations in Ireland and took on multinational McDonald’s, which was accused of animal cruelty.
Be politically active
Starmer entered politics relatively late, following the age of fifty. According to a fellow lawyer, his experience as a lawyer helped his political development. “He practices politics the way he practices law: no fireworks, but he wins in the end by understanding the subject matter thoroughly.”
In 2019, Starmer became leader of a Labour party that was then in ruins. His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn had suffered his worst election result in almost a century, beaten by Boris Johnson’s forceful Brexit talk.
AFPStarmer with his predecessor Corbyn: he inherited a mess in 2019
Starmer decided to completely change the party. As second in command behind Corbyn, he had indeed embraced socialist ideals (such as nationalisations, more government investment through higher taxes) but as soon as Corbyn stepped down, he largely distanced himself from them.
Labour was founded to give factory workers a voice and fight once morest low wages and poor working conditions. With Starmer at the helm, the party is now pro-business: a centrist party that is not just for the unions, but also for business. Starmer wants to attract capital and grow the economy.
And there is less room for pro-Palestinian rhetoric under Starmer. On the Gaza war, Starmer follows the line of the Conservative government in supporting Israel. Even at the expense of Muslim voters, who normally vote Labour.
Similarity to Blair
Starmer realises that he needs to pull the party towards the political centre, which is reminiscent of Blairism: the approach of Tony Blair who developed New Labour from 1997 onwards by embracing the market economy, seeking a middle way between capitalism and socialism. After eighteen years of Conservative governments, a revolt, a shift, was brewing; Britons were hungry for political and cultural change.
Hence, Starmer’s campaign, as then, was focused on change, playing on the feeling that the Conservatives had once once more been in power for too long.
AFPStarmer managed to score with this simple slogan
According to the polls, Starmer is a lot less popular than Blair, he is less charismatic. Starmer’s career as a lawyer and prosecutor made him analytical and methodical. He reacts less well to unexpectedly sharp questions and his language is often woolly.
This was particularly telling when he was in opposition to Boris Johnson in the House of Commons. In the weekly debate hour, Johnson seemed to dominate, but in the meantime, Johnson increasingly entangled himself in a web of lies regarding the Partygate scandal through Starmer’s questions. Starmer is a man of perseverance – not of catchy soundbites.
No promises
Starmer’s election campaign was therefore extremely cautious; he did not commit himself to anything and made almost no promises. Although Labour has won 412 seats so far, there is no wave of hope or optimism in the country, but that is not Starmer’s goal either. Above all, he wants to restore confidence in politics.
According to him, this is badly needed following fourteen years of Tory policy. Hollowed-out public services, Brexit, scandals surrounding Boris Johnson and the chaos of Liz Truss: all this has left voter confidence at a historic low. Even though the British do not fully understand what Starmer stands for, they are prepared to give Labour a chance.
Prefer to listen? Correspondent Fleur Launspach tells in podcast Day who Keir Starmer is and what he wants for the UK. Click here to listen to the podcast episode.
Next week, Starmer will travel to the NATO summit in Washington, immediately following which he will receive European leaders at home. With Starmer, the UK will once once more have a pro-European prime minister, who voted once morest Brexit and sought a second referendum. The expectation is that he will strengthen ties with Brussels and try to repair the damaged relationship.
Yet Starmer has included in policy plans not to rejoin the customs union or the common market. Whether this is his own conviction or a strategic move, even the most informed political analysts cannot answer. Starmer remains, once once more, a mystery to many people.
