20 Important Things To Know About UK Prime Minister Elect, Keir Starmer

The United Kingdom on Friday got a new Prime Minister after the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, secured a clear majority in the lower chamber of the British Parliament.

The Labour Party gained control swiftly after surpassing the 326-member mark needed for a majority in the House of Commons.

Naija News reports that the outgoing British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has since acknowledged defeat in the national election just before any news organization announced that the 326-member threshold had been met.

The newly appointed Prime Minister of the UK, Starmer, was raised in the town of Oxted, located in Surrey.

He was the eldest among four siblings, with Josephine Baker, a nurse, and Rodney Starmer, a craftsman, as his parents. His mother suffered from Still’s disease.

His family were supporters of the Labour Party, and it is said that he was named after the party’s inaugural leader, Keir Hardie, although Starmer mentioned in 2015 that he was uncertain about the accuracy of this.

Here are 24 things to know about UK PM elect Keir Starmer1. Sir Keir Rodney Starmer was born in Southwark, London on September 2, 1962.

1. He is a British politician and barrister.
2. He has served as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.
3. Starmer has represented Holborn and St Pancras as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015. Prior to that, he held the position of Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024 and served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
4. Starmer will succeed Rishi Sunak as prime minister following the Labour Party’s victory at the 2024 general election.
5. Starmer attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School which became a private school while he was a student.
6. He was politically active from an early age and joined the Labour Party Young Socialists at the age of 16.
7. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986.
8. After being called to the bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights.
9. He served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002, later citing his work on policing in Northern Ireland as being a key influence on his decision to pursue a political career.
10. During his time as Director of Public Prosecutions, he dealt with a number of major cases, including the Stephen Lawrence murder case.
11. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.
12. Starmer was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election.
13. As a backbencher, he supported the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum.
14. Starmer was designated as the Shadow Minister for Immigration by Jeremy Corbyn but stepped down from this position in June 2016 as part of the broader shadow cabinet resignations in objection to Corbyn’s leadership. Taking on a new role under Corbyn that year as the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Starmer supported a suggested second referendum on Brexit. After Corbyn’s resignation following Labour’s loss in the 2019 general election, Starmer replaced him as party leader by securing the 2020 leadership election on a left-wing platform.
15. As the Labour leader, Starmer has repositioned the party away from the left and toward the political centre.
16. He has stressed the importance of eliminating antisemitism within the party, a controversial issue during Corbyn’s leadership.
17. His supporters have praised him for his antisemitism reforms and for helping to improve Labour’s credibility with the electorate in the aftermath of the previous leadership, while his critics have accused him of unfairly treating leftist Labour members.
18. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.
19. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule.
20. Starmer’s electoral triumph mirrored Tony Blair’s success in the 1997 general election, which marked the last time the Labour Party managed to unseat a Conservative government.

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