He’s derided as dull but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory
Associated PressLONDON — For someone often derided as dull, Keir Starmer has delivered a sensational election result. Starmer led Britain’s Labour Party to a landslide election victory, and on Friday became the country’s 58th prime minister — the first leader from the center-left party to win a U.K. national election since Tony Blair, who won three in a row starting in 1997. “People look at Starmer and they see this guy who is very solid, clearly very able in his professional life,” said Douglas Beattie, author of “How Labour Wins.” “I think people want that caution, they want that stability.” A former chief prosecutor for England and Wales, Starmer has often been caricatured by Conservative opponents as a “lefty London lawyer.” He was knighted for his role leading the Crown Prosecution Service, and opponents like to use his title, Sir Keir Starmer, to paint him as elite and out of touch. He said he wanted to stay and fight to change Labour, arguing that “leaders are temporary, but political parties are permanent.” After Corbyn led Labour to election defeats in 2017 and 2019 — the latter the party’s worst result since 1935 — Labour picked Starmer to lead efforts to rebuild. Starmer promised “a culture change in the Labour Party.” His mantra is now “country before party.” Starmer has promised voters that a Labour government can ease Britain’s chronic housing crisis and repair its fraying public services, especially the creaking health service — but without imposing tax increases or deepening the public debt.