Keir Starmer: From Taylor Swift to Jojo the Cat, From Tony Blair to Prince William, 5 Things to Understand the New British Prime Minister

AND to think that he had told his friends that he wanted to retire and open a bookshop. It was only five years ago, but then Keir Starmer he was in the midst of one of the worst electoral defeats in the history of the Labour Party. He didn’t open the bookshop, though, because he made it: He is the new British Prime Minister who met King Charles at Buckingham Palace today to receive the mandate and is about to move to Downing Street after the resounding victory (410 seats, last precedent in 1945) over the Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Sixty-one years old, first an international human rights lawyer, then a high-ranking magistrate, Starmer is described by those who don’t like him as humanly uncharismatic and vague on the big issues in politics – not least by his party colleagues, who accuse him of being too moderate and not very close to the Labour political line, in practice “a loose cannon” in the style of Tony Blair.

1. Like a Ken Loach movie

But his biography actually seems worthy of a Ken Loach film: the first in his family to graduate, as he points out in every TV debate, he grew up in Oxted, Surrey, a small town and a Conservative stronghold, in a left-wing working-class family (very left-wing: his name is a tribute to Keir Hardie, the founder and first leader of the Labour Party at the beginning of the twentieth century), in financial straits and with many problems. His father was a craftsman, who made tools, his mother a nurse and was ill for a long time; he said he had been punched more than once by the bullies who tormented his brother who had learning difficulties. Extremely reserved about his private life and family, He is married to Victoria Alexander49 years old, also a lawyer, and has two teenage children, a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, whose privacy she fiercely defends.

2. The Fish and the Cat

His wife had declared to the Times that if they won they would not want to leave their home in Camden to move to Downing Streetand he had expressed concern about the impact on his children of this major career move. Whether they all move or not (they probably will), and whether they continue to follow the pescetarian diet to which Victoria would have converted him, it is not yet known, certainly he will be with them Jojo: The Starmers’ Cat in fact, he is the most talked about family member and the object of jealousy on the part of the new prime minister. “I can say that my children are more affectionate with Jojo than with me,” he said in a rare reference to the boys. Let’s not expect to see them around too much, apart from the ritual photos.

3. Taylor Swift’s Move

Unlike Prince William’s children, the two teenagers were not with him and Victoria at Taylor Swift’s big concert. Stadium enthusiast from die-hard Arsenal fanthis time he didn’t move for football but for music, not lacking hints of dance, but also to give a pop boost to the electoral campaign which according to youth vote analysts Labour has paid off.

4. The bond with Prince William

The presence of William and Keir together in the VIP delegation at the concert made one think of a political harmony too, especially remembering William’s statements last spring in favor of a ceasefire in Gazawhich have made the impartial members of the Crown shudder and hypothesize a future “liberal” English alliance between government and monarchy. It will hardly be so. Not because Prince William will not potentially be a future progressive king (everything says he will be), but because Keir Starmer doesn’t really seem that far left from his views on important issueshe seems more like a pragmatist who decides from time to time, with caution.

5. Like Tony Blair, or Macron

The comparisons for him are Tony Blair and, from the detractors, even Macron. Neither of these examples are very happy at the moment. While the left, despite his Dickens-like childhood, his declared atheism and his humanitarian commitment, have always accused him of being too right-wing, on the right the Conservatives are waiting at the pass for him to crash alone in front of the enormous economic problems of Great Britain, which has emerged from 10 years of conservative governments that have been problematic to say the least.
We can certainly expect that the measure of deportation of migrants to Rwanda devised by predecessor Sunak will be cancelled at the speed of light, but a change on the Brexit there is no need to delude ourselves: “As long as I’m alive, it won’t happen.”