By John Ogunsemore, Lagos
The Sir Keir Starmer-led Labour Party coasted to victory at Thursday’s general election in the United Kingdom, gaining a landslide victory over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party.
Sir Keir, 61, is expected to resume at 10 Downing Street later on Friday, marking the end of the Tories’ 14-year rule under five Prime Ministers.
He is poised to become the first Prime Minister from the Labour Party since 2010 when Gordon Brown (2007 – 2010) led the country.
The five Conservatives that followed were David Cameron (2010 – 2016), Theresa May (2016 – 2019), Boris Johnson (2019 – 2022), Liz Truss (2022 – 2022) and Rishi Sunak (2022 – 2024).
Read also: Labour Party cruises to victory in UK election
Who is Sir Keir Starmer?
Born on September 2, 1962, in London but raised in Surrey, a county in South-East England, Starmer is a barrister-cum-politician who has been the Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.
He was first elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015 and has since served as Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2008 to 2013.
Starmer attended the Reigate Grammar School in Surrey and proceeded to the University of Leeds, where he bagged a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1985. He bagged a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986 and gained valuable experience in criminal defence work with a speciality in human rights.
He began practising as a barrister at the Middle Temple, one of London’s Inns of Court, in 1987 and cofounded the Doughty Street Chambers legal practice and was the firm’s joint head for several years.
Starmer served as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and was appointed Queen’s Counsel, the equivalent of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in 2002.
He replaced retiring MP Frank Dodson for the London constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras in the House of Commons on May 7, 2015.
After four years in parliament, he put himself forward for the vacant position of Leader of the Labour Party in January 2020. Jeremy Corbyn stepped down from the position in 2019 after the party suffered its worst electoral defeat since 1935.
Elected Leader of the Labour Party on April 4, 2020, he focused on repositioning the party towards the political centre, aiming to regain the trust of voters lost in the 2019 general election.
He emphasised the need for strong economic management, social justice, and a pragmatic approach to Brexit.
He also undertook efforts to address internal party divisions, distancing the party from the perceived extremism of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, while emphasising a zero-tolerance stance on anti-Semitism.
His leadership saw a focus on presenting Labour as a credible government-in-waiting, capable of addressing the UK’s pressing issues, including the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, and social inequality.
Read also: Tinubu congratulates UK Labour leader Starmer on election victory