Person of Interest: Kier Starmer, UK Labour.

On April 4, 2020 Kier Starmer was elected head of Britain’s Labour party and Leader of the Opposition. Starmer pulled off a convincing win by capturing 56.2% of the vote in the Labour party to succeed the increasingly unpopular Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn had to take responsibility for Labour’s dismal 2019 election showing and for Labour being branded anti-Semitic as a result of Corbyn’s strong support of the Palestinian cause.

After graduating Oxford, Kier Starmer started a distinguished legal career by becoming a Middle Temple Barrister in 1987. He became known as a defense lawyer specializing in human rights. In 2002 at the age of 39 he was appointed Queen’s Counsel. In 2004 he was knighted by the queen, “for services to law and criminal justice” but prefers not be known as “Sir Kier.”

 Starmer worked as Human Right Advisor for the Northern Ireland Policing Board and sat on the Death Penalty Advisory Panel. In 2008 he became Head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In May 2015 Kier Starmer became MP for Holborn and St.Pancras and joined the House of Commons. He quickly moved to the front and became Brexit shadow minister. After Corbyn’s 2019 election debacle he decided to stand for election as head of the party. He vowed to uproot Labour’s alleged anti-Semitic stance. His style in Parliament is described as low-key and businesslike; a stark contrast to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s more flamboyant manner.

So what is ahead for Kier Starmer and Labour? He will have to deal with a post Corona virus Britain and a post Brexit Britain, no small task. More importantly, the Conservative party has a robust 80 seat majority making getting a Labour agenda moved down the field a daunting task. Labour has been out in the cold since the time of Tony Blair in 2005. Can Labour reform itself and make a party and a platform that is attractive to the British public? Time will tell, but clearly  Kier Starmer has his work cut out for him.

Photo: Chris McAndrew via Wiki