Who is Keir Starmer, the Labour lawyer who is taking over as the UK’s new prime minister?

Keir Starmer, The lawyer who changed the course of Labour Party in the United Kingdom to bring it closer to more central positions, He became the seventh British Prime Minister of his political party on Friday. after winning the general elections in a landslide, putting an end to fourteen years of conservative governments.

On a busy day for national politics, Starmer went mid-morning to Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the British royalty in London, where, as planned, He held an audience with the British king, Charles III, in which the monarch asked him to form a government and officially named him prime minister.

Starmer was commissioned by the king after Labour won 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in Thursday’s election, well above the threshold of 326 needed to obtain an absolute majority and be able to govern alone.

The Conservatives of ousted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, 44, won 121 seats compared with 365 five years ago under Boris Johnson. This is the lowest figure in an election since the party was founded in 1834.

The Conservative Party, embroiled in internal struggles and mired in a deep crisis, had been in power since May 2010, first with David Cameron as prime minister, followed by Theresa May and then Johnson.

But Brexit in 2020, along with Covid-19, rising living costs and a criticised health service, ended up taking their toll on the Conservatives.

Despite his comfortable victory, Starmer did not surpass the record of Labour MPs (418), obtained by Tony Blair in 1997, when he ended 18 years of Conservative governments.

Once his meeting with the king was over, Starmer went to Downing Street, which will now be his office and official residence, and must begin to appoint members of his cabinet.

Keir Starmer, the lawyer who led the Labour Party to victory

Despite his obsession with privacy, Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has repeatedly recounted the details of his childhood in a working-class family struggling to make ends meet.

He was born in 1962 in Surrey, south of London, a traditionally bourgeois and conservative area, where he always felt, according to his biography, a little out of place.

The head of the Government studied at the University of Leeds and later at Oxford, where he became fascinated by the defence of human rights.

He became head of the Prosecutor’s Office in 2008 after having built a reputation as a human rights lawyer and Six years later he left the Public Ministry to make the leap into politics. Starmer first entered parliament as a Labour Party member after being elected to the London borough of Holborn and St Pancras in 2015.

He also quickly caught the attention of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who brought him on board first as his immigration spokesman and then as Brexit spokesman.

Starmer, a Labour man from birth, having inherited his first name from Keir Hadie, founder and first leader of the Labour Party at the beginning of the 20th century, finally took over the reins of the party four years ago.

The politician took over from his predecessor Corbyn, a defender of a more leftist ideology, as head of the party in April 2020.following a severe setback for Labour in the 2019 legislative elections. After that failure, Starmer changed the direction of the party, distancing it from Corbyn’s more radical theses.

He therefore entered politics late, at the age of 52. An age at which former Labour leader Tony Blair ceased to be the leader of the party.

But his ambition to fly high in politics was clear from the start, when he was asked some time ago how he would like to be remembered. “As someone who brought about a bold and reformist Labour government. As a great father and friend,” he summed up in that interview.

Keir Starmer promises to bring change to the UK

In his first speech as head of government this Friday, Keir Starmer has promised his government will bring “change” and “rebuild” the country.

Starmer recalled that citizens gave his party “a clear mandate” at the polls, which they will use to “deliver change and restore service and respect to politics.”

From now on, you have a government stripped of doctrine, guided only by the determination to serve your interests.

“From now on, you have a government stripped of doctrine, guided only by the determination to serve your interests, and to calmly defy those who have discarded our country,” he said.

The British leader insisted that “politics can be a force for good,” without forgetting to dedicate a few words of thanks to the management of his predecessor in office, Rishi Sunak, whom he praised for the “dedication and hard work he brought to his leadership.”

However, he recalled that now the citizens “have voted decisively for change, for national renewal and for the return of politics to public service.”

He stressed that the current “lack of trust” in politicians can be healed “with actions, not words,” and he promised to treat “each and every citizen” of this country with respect.

“The work of change begins now, but have no doubt, we will rebuild the United Kingdom with wealth generated in every community,” he said.

Starmer’s emergence coincides with the centenary of the rise to power of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, who held office between January and November 1924.

Following Labour’s baptism at the head of the government, the political party enjoyed a golden period in the sixties and seventies, with Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, before the arrival of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, prime ministers between 1997 and 2010.

Starmer has promised cautious management of the economy as part of a long-term growth plan that includes strengthening criticised public services, particularly the maligned health system.