If predictions hold true, Labour’s Keir Starmer will become Britain’s next prime minister. Starmer is known for being largely unknown.
The British don’t know From Keir Starmer, 61, not much. Most people do not know in which field Starmer has made his career or in what conditions Starmer has grown up. Fresh according to public research about half of Britons do not know how Starmer, who will probably become the next prime minister, intends to lead the country.
Responsible. Boring. Serious. Work oriented. This is how Starmer is described in the British media.
And disconcertingly, these are exactly the qualities Britain seems to be missing as the country marches to the polls after the Conservative Party’s tumultuous reign.
British politics is turning on its head. If the predictions are correct, the labor party Labor will take a historic big election victory in the elections and get an absolute majority in the 650-seat lower house of the parliament. The Tory Conservative Party is predicted to suffer an unprecedented election defeat and potentially lose hundreds of seats in Parliament.
So Starmer will move into the prime minister’s official residence in London’s Downing Street, following the conservative prime ministers who have held the position for 14 years. There is no way to describe them as boring: David Cameron’s, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, By Liz Truss and Rishi Sun too the dynasty will go down in history as chaotic.
The conservatives’ radical ideas, such as Cameron’s Brexit gamble and Truss’ shock treatment of the economy, have left Britain a very different state than it was at the turn of the millennium.
Sunak, who took the helm in 2022, failed to convince the British that the Conservatives can still fix the country’s public services and economic crisis. Above all, the polls show that the British want to try something new.
Starmer intends to “conserve” Britain
Labour’s Starmer, who describes himself as “centrist” and “progressive”, has not a single radical idea to present to Britain. Paradoxically, Starmer is primarily interested in conservation, which is usually associated with conservative parties.
The Conservative Party can no longer say it is conservative. It doesn’t conserve (preserve) anything we care about – not our rivers or seas, not our NHS or BBC, not our families, not our nation.
Keir Starmer, The Independent 13/03/2023
Starmer was born in 1962 in London and grew up in a Duna family in Surrey. My youth was overshadowed by the tight financial situation and my mother’s Still’s disease. Politically active from a young age, Starmer applied to study law at the University of Leeds and later at Oxford.
The only blemish on Starmer’s as dull as he is decent past speaks volumes: he was arrested on the French Riviera about illegal ice cream sales.
Starmer started his working career as a defense lawyer and specialized in human rights. According to Starmer, an important period for him was working for the government that oversees the police in Northern Ireland, where he had to make art in the hot-spot conditions of the years after the IRA violence.
We need to understand that we have precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that we have a responsibility to protect, preserve and pass on to future generations. If this sounds conservative, let me tell you: I don’t care.
Keir Starmer, The Independent 13/03/2023
Starmer progressed through his legal career to senior positions in the Public Prosecution Service in England and Wales, and was awarded a Knighthood of the Bath. He entered politics in 2015, when he was elected to the lower house of the parliament as a representative of the Labor Party.
In the years that followed, Starmer opposed Brexit. After Brexit, Starmer began to cautiously challenge Labour Jeremy Corbyn and this far-left politics. Corbyn, plagued by accusations of anti-Semitism, had driven the party into a divided state.
After the catastrophic election defeat in 2019, Corbyn resigned from the leadership of the party. Starmer entered the leadership race with a traditional leftist campaign. Victory came, and in April 2020, Starmer took over. He began to reform the party, including eradicating anti-Semitism.
Since then, Starmer has purposefully moved the party towards the political center, among other things by emphasizing the importance of economic thinking and speaking strongly about fighting crime.
Avoider and canceler
In foreign policy, Starmer strongly supports Ukraine. Regarding Palestine and Gaza, Starmer supports an immediate ceasefire and a two-state solution. However, he has not sympathized with the more strictly pro-Palestinian wing of the Labor Party, which has led to internal rifts.
Starmer, who is cautious and plays on the safe side, is not canceling Brexit, but completely avoids the still painful topic in the country. However, he has communicated that he is ready for new negotiations of EU trade agreements and wants a closer, functional relationship with the Union.
Starmer is ready to compromise and go back on his promises if it contributes to the stability of the party’s popularity. He is “ready to do anything – and has done anything – to get into government,” British political scientist commented to AP.
Starmer has a wife and two young children. He has expressed that he is worried about how a possible prime ministership would affect his family.
At the time of the call, the work list includes, among other things, fixing Britain’s chronic housing shortage, basic renovation of public services and at the same time curbing the country’s indebtedness. The merciless British press will treat even a boring man harshly, so Starmer’s concern about the family is justified in the face of fast-paced years.
Sources: AP