After the Labour Party’s stunning defeat during the 2019 election, British politician Sir Keir Starmer was elected as their leader. Since 2020 he has served as the head of the Labour party and the Leader of the Opposition. He has also served as a Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. He is well known for his identification as a socialist and is an advocate for socialist policies.
Keir Starmer seems to have been born for his role in politics; he was named after the founder of the Labour Party, Keir Hardie. He grew up in Surrey where he attended the private Reigate Grammar School. He studied a bachelor of Laws at the University of Leeds and a bachelor of Civil Laws at Oxford. After being accepted into the bar Starmer began working as a defence lawyer and was eventually appointed as the Head of Crown Prosecutions, a position that he held until 2013.
In 2015 he joined the House of Commons and was later appointed to the Shadow Cabinet. After the Labour Party was defeated during the 2019 election he was chosen to succeed leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He is notable for his socialist beliefs and has been outspoken about his desire to confront inequality and injustice issues. Most notably he support the social ownership of key UK public services and infrastructure and wants to abolish tuition fees for university students. He has also pushed to put and end to illegal wars and has called for the UK’s arms sales to be reviewed. He has spoken out about his views on the Iraq War which he has said was not legal.
In his personal life he is happily married to Victoria Alexander whom he shares two children with and he is an avid supporter of Arsenal.