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Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer ( ; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

Starmer was born in Southwark, London. He moved with his parents to Surrey where he was raised. Starmer attended Reigate Grammar School. He was active politically as a teenager, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and received a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree from the University of Oxford where he was a student at St Edmund Hall in 1986. After being called to the Bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights. He served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, taking silk as a Queen's Counsel in 2002. During his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service he dealt with a number of major cases, including the Stephen Lawrence murder case. In the 2014 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) for "services to law and criminal justice".

Starmer's policing work in Northern Ireland influenced him to pursue a political career, and he was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. He supported the Remain campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum and advocated a proposed second referendum on Brexit. He served in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Brexit Secretary, and following Corbyn's resignation after Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election, Starmer succeeded him by winning the 2020 leadership election. As Leader of the Opposition he moved Labour towards the political centre and emphasised the elimination of antisemitism within the party, and his party made significant gains in the 2023 and 2024 local elections. Starmer oversaw a significant drop in Labour membership in the years leading up to the 2024 election.

Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory at the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative Party governance, though with the smallest electoral vote share of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote began in 1830. Under Starmer's premiership the government has ended certain winter fuel payments for around 10 million people, implemented an early-release scheme for thousands of prisoners to decrease prison overcrowding, and settled a number of public-sector strikes. Starmer has announced the Border Security Command in replacement of the Rwanda asylum plan and a National Violent Disorder Programme in response to the 2024 riots, as well as reforms to workers' rights. In foreign policy, he has supported Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel in the Gaza war, whilst also calling for a ceasefire in the latter conflict. Provided by Wikipedia