Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC is a British politician and barrister who has been the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. He was previously Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013. Ideologically, Starmer has been described as being on the soft left within the Labour Party.

Starmer was born in London and raised in Surrey, where he attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School, which became an independent school while he was a student. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986. After being called to the Bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, with a particular interest in human rights issues. He was a member of Doughty Street Chambers. He was appointed as Queen's Counsel (QC) in 2002. In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, holding these roles until 2013. On conclusion of his five-year term as DPP, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours.

Elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election, Starmer became Shadow Minister for Immigration in September 2015, before being appointed in October 2016 as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union following the EU membership referendum. Starmer advocated a second referendum on Brexit, saying he would have voted for "Remain". After Jeremy Corbyn resigned following Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election, In April 2020 Starmer won the Labour Party leadership election.