Keir Starmer

September 2, 1962

British politician and former barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2024 to 2026 and Leader of the Labour Party from 2020 to 2026. He was earlier Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

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Biography

Keir Starmer was born in Southwark in 1962 and grew up in Oxted, Surrey, the son of a toolmaker and a nurse. He went to Reigate Grammar School, studied law at the University of Leeds and then at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1987.

As a barrister he specialised in human rights, defending prisoners facing the death penalty in the Caribbean and advising the McLibel defendants. He became a Queen's Counsel in 2002 and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. From 2008 to 2013 he was Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, and he was knighted in 2014.

Elected MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015, he served as shadow Brexit secretary under Jeremy Corbyn and won the Labour leadership in 2020. He moved the party toward the centre and led it to a landslide win at the July 2024 general election. As prime minister he grew deeply unpopular; after heavy Labour losses in local elections in 2025 and 2026 he announced his resignation, and he left office in July 2026, succeeded by Andy Burnham.