From the clutches of poverty to the pinnacle of glory.. Who is Keir Starmer, the new British Prime Minister?

From the clutches of poverty to the pinnacle of political glory, Keir Starmer, the leader of the British Labour Party, has risen through the ranks. The man from a humble background has held several positions, from a human rights lawyer to the state’s attorney general, but it seems that his boundless ambition and enormous potential for work have propelled him to the highest political position in Britain.

The British Labour Party won an absolute majority in the next British parliament after the legislative elections held on Thursday, returning to power after 14 years of Conservative rule.

With about a dozen seats to go, Labour won 410 seats, the Conservatives 117 and the centrist Liberal Democrats 70, their best performance ever. About 250 Conservative lawmakers were ousted in the landslide, including a record number of senior ministers and former prime minister Liz Truss.

The 61-year-old leader, named after Labour founder Keir Hardie, is the most working-class leader of the opposition party in decades. “My father was a toolmaker, my mother was a nurse,” Starmer repeatedly told voters during his campaign, rejecting his rivals’ portrayal of him as part of London’s snooty liberal elite.

With his grey hair and black-rimmed glasses, Starmer remains an enigma to his voters who will send him to Downing Street after the general election.

Critics call him an opportunist, but his supporters insist he is a pragmatic administrator who approaches the office of prime minister in the same way he has approached his career: tirelessly and with legal argument.

“Politics must be about service,” Starmer said in a recent campaign speech, reiterating his mantra of putting “country first, party second” after 14 years of Conservative rule under five prime ministers.

At times, the Arsenal fan, who came to politics late in life, seems uncomfortable in the spotlight, struggling to shed his public image as a boring figure.

But Starmer, whose wife Victoria works in the National Health Service and with whom he has a teenage son and daughter, is said to be different, with a sense of humour in private.

Starmer has pledged, if elected, to maintain his habit of not working after 6pm on Fridays and to spend that time with his family.

Born on 2 September 1962, Keir Rodney Starmer was raised in a cramped house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father.

He has three siblings, one of whom has learning difficulties, and his parents are animal lovers who have helped care for donkeys. “Whenever one of us leaves the house, we get replaced by a donkey,” Starmer joked.

Starmer learned to play the violin at school under Norman Cook, a former guitarist who became a famous music arranger, and attended a prestigious music school in London at weekends.

After studying law at Leeds and Oxford universities, Starmer turned his attention to left-wing causes, defending trade unions, anti-McDonald’s activists and death row prisoners abroad.

He is a friend of human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, with whom he trained as a lawyer, and has recounted having lunch with her and her husband, actor George Clooney, once.

In 2003, to the shock of his friends and colleagues, he began to move closer to the political establishment, initially taking a job ensuring that the police in Northern Ireland complied with human rights legislation.

Five years later, he was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales when Labour leader Gordon Brown was Prime Minister.

Between 2008 and 2013, he oversaw the prosecution of MPs accused of misusing their expenses, journalists accused of phone-hacking, and young rioters involved in unrest across England.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, but rarely used the title, and in 2015 he was elected as a member of Parliament for a north London constituency with a largely left-leaning electorate.

Just weeks before his election, his mother died of a rare joint disease that left her unable to walk for many years.

In 2021, Starmer cried during a TV interview as he recounted how his mother’s death had “shattered” his father.

Just a year after being elected to Parliament, Starmer joined a group of Labour rebels against far-left Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of lacking leadership during the Brexit referendum campaign.

The rebellion failed later that year, but Starmer rejoined Labour’s leadership team as Brexit spokesman, a role he continued until succeeding Corbyn, who led the party to its worst election defeat since 1935.

Since then, Starmer has shown determination by returning the party to the centre and leading a purge of Corbyn’s legacy as well as rooting out anti-Semitism within the party.

The left has accused Starmer of betrayal for dropping a number of campaign pledges, including abolishing university fees.

But his push to strategically reposition Labour and put it back on the path to power suggests that success is a constant in Starmer’s life.

“If you are born without privilege, you have no time to mess around,” Starmer once said, adding: “You can’t skirt around problems without solving them.”

Starmer promises national renewal
After the British Labour Party won an absolute majority in the British Parliament, Starmer promised a national renewal, stressing that the United Kingdom is ready for change and aspires to return to politics as a service to the public. He said in a speech he gave after his re-election in his constituency in North London: Voters here and across the country have spoken and are ready for change, to end the politics of show, and to return to politics as a service to the public.

Sunak bear defeat
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted on Friday that the Conservatives had been defeated in the general election, saying he took responsibility for it, after a landslide victory for the Labour Party. Sunak acknowledged that the Labour Party had won these general elections.
“The British people have given a clear verdict tonight… and I take responsibility for this defeat,” he added after being re-elected in his Richmond constituency in northern England.