Keir Starmer: 10 facts about UK’s newly elected Prime Minister
In the just concluded election on 4 July 2024, Keir Starmer defeated Rishi Sunak to emerge as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. From the center-left party, Starmer is the first to win the UK national election after Tony Blair.
What do you know about the new UK Prime Minister? Check out more incredible facts about him below:
Keir Rodney Starmer was born on 2 September 1962 in Southwark, London. He’s the second of four children of Rodney and Josephine Starmer. His love for politics started when he was a teenager. At 16, he became a young socialist for the Labour Party.
Keir studied law at the University of Leeds and graduated with a first class in 1985. For his postgraduate studies, he attended Oxford University and graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1986. Between 1986 to 1987, he served as the editor of Socialist Alternatives magazine.
He became a barrister in 1987. In 1990, Starmer was appointed a member of Doughty Street Chambers, focusing on human rights issues. Subsequently, he rose to become a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Starmer is very well recognized for his intensified efforts to promote human rights and integrate them into the legal system. In 2011, he introduced a paperless hearing, which allowed him to handle numerous murder cases.
He played the piano, recorder, and violin very well. He was an exhibitionist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 2008, he became the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Director of Public Prosecutions.
The new UK Prime Minister was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath (KCB) in 2014. In 2015, he became a member of the parliament representing Holborn and St Pancras. He was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. In June 2024, he was elected as the Labour Party candidate for Holborn and St Pancras.
He became the Opposition Leader in 2020. He is an atheist. Rather than taking oath, he prefers to do “solemn affirmation” because he does not believe in God but in the power of faith that unites people.
9 Starmer loves playing football; he participated in a North London amateur team, Homerton Academicals. He is also an author and editor of many human rights and criminal law books.
He was appointed as the Queen’s Counsel in 2002. His outstanding contributions to challenging the death penalty in Kenya, Malawi, the Caribbean, and Uganda earned him the “Bar Council’s Sydney Elland Goldsmith Award.”