July 5th 2024.
As the General Election results roll in and Keir Starmer secures his seat in Holborn and St Pancras, it's no surprise that people are becoming more interested in the Labour leader. After all, he's predicted to become the next prime minister according to the exit poll. Starmer has been in the political game since 2015 when he was first elected as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras. He took over as leader of the Labour Party in 2020 after Jeremy Corbyn stepped down following disappointing election results in 2019.
If you want to stay updated on the 2024 General Election, be sure to follow The Agency's live blog for the latest news. During his campaign, Starmer has made it a point to emphasize his humble beginnings as an ordinary man from a working-class family. This is in contrast to his opponent, Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak, who was recently revealed to be wealthier than King Charles when combined with his wife's assets.
But who exactly is Keir Starmer? Who were his parents and how did he grow up? Starmer was born on September 2, 1962, to Josephine and Rodney Starmer. He is the second of four children. His mother was a nurse and his father worked as a toolmaker. Unfortunately, Josephine had to give up her job due to being diagnosed with Still's Disease, an autoimmune condition. Both of his parents have passed away, with his mother passing shortly before he was elected to parliament in 2015 and his father in 2018.
Starmer has expressed regret for not being closer to his father, describing him as "difficult" and "complicated." In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he shared that his father would work long 14-hour days and only come home for an hour before returning to work. However, he also spoke of his father's devotion and commitment to his mother. Starmer grew up in Oxted, a small town in Surrey, and his parents were supporters of the Labour Party. He was the first in his family to graduate from university with first-class honours in law.
Before entering politics, Starmer served as the Director of Public Prosecutions, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, from 2008 to 2013. He was later knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath for his five-year term. There has been speculation that his father may have owned the toolmaking factory where he worked, rather than just being an employee. This has been a topic of discussion in political cartoons, but there is no definitive proof that Rodney was not the working-class man that his son claims he was.
Starmer's wife, Victoria, is also a practicing lawyer. They met when she was working on a case that Keir was involved in. They married in 2007 and have two children together. Victoria's father is Jewish, and they are raising their children in the Jewish faith, although they do not consider themselves to be particularly religious. She currently works in the NHS in occupational health, which Keir referenced in the first ITV debate. The couple lives in a £1.75million house in Camden, North London, and raised their children as vegetarians until they turned 10 and were given the choice to eat meat.
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