Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2024 to 2026. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 2020 to 2026 and Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras from 2015 to 2026. Before entering politics, he was a barrister and served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

Born in Southwark, London, and raised in Surrey, Starmer was politically active for the Labour Party Young Socialists as a teenager. He graduated as a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Leeds in 1985 and received a Bachelor of Civil Law degree as a member of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, in 1986. After being called to the bar, Starmer worked predominantly in criminal defence, specialising in human rights. He was a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and became a Queen's Counsel in 2002. During his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, the cases he handled included the Stephen Lawrence murder. In the 2014 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) for services to law and criminal justice.

Starmer was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. He supported the Remain campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum and advocated for a second referendum on Brexit. He served under Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Brexit Secretary and, following Corbyn's resignation after Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election, Starmer won the 2020 party leadership election. As Leader of the Opposition, he moved the Labour Party towards the political centre and claimed to have eliminated antisemitism within the party, but was criticised for breaking his leadership campaign pledges. His party made significant gains at the 2023 and 2024 local elections despite a drop in membership.