Rishi Sunak of Indian origin is no longer the Prime Minister of Britain. Keir Starmer of the Labour Party, who once studied while living on the roof of a brothel, defeated him in the elections. The Labour Party has won 650/410 seats in the Parliament. Starmer will now become the 58th Prime Minister of Britain. His personality is completely opposite to Sunak. Because in the world every person is different, while Sunak of Indian origin has been calling himself religious and believes in Hinduism, Starmer does not believe in God. But he does not even call himself an atheist. BUT, to attract most of the Hindu voters in the elections, he used to go to Hindu temples and do puja and recitation, he did not spend much money either because he is not a billionaire like Sunak.
Who is Starmer, who once wanted to leave politics and sell books, read about his life so far in stories
Nurse’s son who was called the super boy of grammar school
It was 2 September 1962. A child was born in London to a simple nurse and a tool maker. Today the world knows him as Sir Keir Starmer. Starmer’s father Rodney Starmer was a hardcore leftist, due to which he named his son Keir Starmer after the founder of the Labour Party Keir Hardie.
Starmer’s childhood was spent in a middle class poor family. He was bright and top in studies from the beginning. He took admission in grammar school after studying till 11th. His siblings called him the superboy of grammar school due to his excellent performance, who was interested in studies, sports and music.
Starmer has told in many interviews that his relationship with his father was not good. Both of them did not get along at all, there were fights on every small thing. He says that his father was of angry and irritable nature. His emotional attachment was only for his mother Josephine. He loved his mother very much. When he was 11 years old, his mother had a very rare disease. Which was somewhat like arthritis.
Starmer had said in an interview to Politico that his childhood was very bad due to his mother’s disease. Due to the disease, his mother’s bones gradually became so weak that it became difficult for her to walk and stand.
Due to this, she could hardly walk 10-11 steps. She struggled with pain for 50 years. Due to not walking, her weight increased a lot, due to which it became difficult for her to walk. In the last days of her life, her bones became as weak as biscuits, which would break even under light pressure. She stopped eating, sleeping, turning sides, everything. She became so troubled by the pain that even her legs had to be amputated. This pain lasted till her death.
Joined politics during studies
During his studies, at the age of 16, he joined the Labour Party’s youth wing ‘Young Socialists’. After completing his schooling, at the age of 18, he took admission to study law at Leeds University. With this, he became the first person in his family to study at a university.
Starmer belonged to a very middle class family. When he had to come to London after completing his graduation from Leeds University to study post graduation, he did not have much money. Due to this, he had to live in a room on the roof of a brothel.
The room was small, but was very dirty, there was a lot of noise around. However, due to its low rent, Starmer thought it right to stay there. Starmer and his friends had made that room their hangout.
One day, when the father of one of his friends saw Starmer going to that house, he expressed his displeasure about it. According to Starmer’s biography, he would often tell dirty jokes to the woman who lived in the room below that house.
Lawyer introduced him to his wife Victoria, they fought on their first meeting
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Leeds in 1985, Starmer went to Oxford University in 1986 from where he completed his postgraduation in civil law. Starmer started working as a barrister in London in 1987 on matters like human rights, criminal defense work.
Keir Starmer has been very much against the monarchy in Britain. Despite this, he received the title of knighthood from the royal palace for doing good for the people through law and he became Sir Keir Starmer from Keir Starmer. He was also made Queen’s Counsel in 2002. While working as a lawyer, Starmer met Victoria, who worked in the legal team of the National Health Service. Who later became his wife.
The story of Starmer and Victoria’s meeting is quite interesting. Starmer shared it with Times Magazine and told that he had called the company in which Victoria worked in connection with a case. He wanted to cross check a document again. Coincidentally, Victoria had worked on it. Victoria got irritated at Starmer’s inquiry. She abused Starmer and said about him, “What does he think of himself.” When Starmer came to know about Victoria, he apologized and proposed to go on a date. Victoria accepted it. And they solved the problem, after which they got married in 2002. Both of them live in a house worth Rs 18 crores in London with their 2 children.
Starmer clashed with McDonald as a lawyer, fought the case of two activists for 10 years
Keir Starmer started his practice as a barrister in London in 1987. Initially, he worked on cases like human rights, criminal defense. In 1997, he fought the case of two climate activists against McDonald’s.
Climate activists Helen Steele and David Morris had made many allegations against McDonald’s. They used to print pamphlets against the company and distribute them among the people. It was written on it- ‘What is wrong with McDonald’s? Know everything that the company is hiding from you.’ In this pamphlet, many serious allegations were made against the company like exploitation of employees, deforestation, promotion of junk food.
After this, McDonald’s filed a defamation case against these two activists. Keir Starmer fought their case for about 10 years.
And won in his favor, although in the end he could not present any concrete evidence against McDonald’s. After this, the court imposed a fine of 40 thousand pounds on Helen and David, but they refused to pay the fine.
MacDonald also said that he does not want to pay the fine. He is happy that the decision has come in his favor. However, the European Human Rights gave its verdict against this decision of the British court and said that Helen Steele and David Morris have the right to freedom of expression.
They ordered the British government to pay 57 thousand pounds to both of them. This case also became very famous during that time. It is known as the ‘McLibel case’. In the year 2015, Starmer got a ticket for MP from the Labor Party. He reached the Parliament for the first time by winning the election. Now after 9 years, he has reached the post of PM.
Starmer once wanted to leave politics and sell books
According to the famous English newspaper Telegraph, Starmer’s friends say that after the defeat in the Hartlepool by-election in 2021, Keir Starmer was about to say goodbye to politics. He was heartbroken and was very saddened by the defeat in this election.
After losing Hartlepool, which was considered a safe seat for the Labor Party, to the Conservatives, Starmer was about to announce his retirement from politics and had also talked to his friends about this. He had told his friends that he wanted to leave politics and work in a bookstore.
Hardcore leftists were wiped out from the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn was not even given a ticket
Keir Starmer was made the leader of the opposition of the Labour Party in the year 2020. According to the BBC, he is accused of sidelining hardline leftist leaders in the party one by one. The leaders who made the allegations include names like Diane Abbott, Faiza Shaheen and Lloyd Russell-Moyle. The party’s name was getting tarnished due to hardliners and leftist leaders.
Many leaders of the Labour Party alleged that they were not given tickets because they were closer to the left and criticized Israel in the Gaza war. Starmer did not even give a ticket to Jeremy Corbyn, a strong leader of the Labour Party. Corbyn was recently accused of making anti-Semitic statements.
Corbyn has been continuously becoming an MP from Islington North seat since 1983. O’Keefe was angry after his ticket was cut, he decided to contest the election as an independent from his traditional seat against the Labour Party candidate. After this, Starmer got angry and expelled the 40-year-old leader from the Labor Party. Starmer announced that now his old boss Corbyn will never return to the party.
According to Politico’s report, Starmer is facing criticism in his own party due to his foreign policy. After the attack on Israel, Israel started retaliatory action in Gaza. When this was criticized, Starmer said that Israel should not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed. His statement was seen as support for the Jews. Hamas has to be destroyed at any cost, he is very much against terrorism, this is also his foreign policy.
According to the report of The Times of Israel, this community had turned against the Labor Party due to Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-Semitic policies. During the 2019 elections, many Jewish organizations had said that if the Labor Party wins, half the Jews will leave the country. The Labor Party lost the election that year. After this, after becoming the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer tried to gradually reduce the anger of the Jews. And he was successful in this.
Starmer corrected Corbyn’s mistake, changed the party’s anti-India stand on Kashmir
When Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of the Labor Party in 2015, he made many statements on the Kashmir issue which were not liked by the Indian-origin people. According to Al Jazeera’s report, India abolished Article 370 in Kashmir in the year 2019.
Then Corbyn came up with an emergency proposal which said that the people of Kashmir should have the right to take their own decisions. After this, Hindu voters living in Britain got angry with him and called him anti-India and anti-Hindu.
Organizations associated with Hindu voters vowed not to vote for the Labor Party. In the year 2019, the Labor Party faced its worst defeat since 1935, after which Corbyn was removed from the post.
After this, when Keir Starmer became the leader of the Labor Party in 2020, he tried to end the resentment of Hindu voters and changed the party’s stand on the Kashmir issue. He described the abolition of Article 370 as an issue of the Indian Parliament. Starmer said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue which should be resolved peacefully by India and Pakistan.
Hindu organizations welcomed the party’s changed stand on the Kashmir issue. After this, he also visited temples to woo Hindu voters in Britain. Recently, he visited a temple in London just 6 days before the elections and described the temple as a symbol of compassion.
Keir Starmer is in favor of improving relations with India. Last year, at the India Global Forum, he said about India-UK relations that his Labor government will build better relations with India. He said – I have a clear message for all of you. This is a changed Labor Party. Starmer said that if his government is formed, he will implement a free trade agreement with India.