Keir Starmer

Early life

Keir Rodney Starmer was born on 2 September 1962 in Southwark, south-east London, and raised in Oxted, Surrey. He is the second of four children of Josephine (née Baker), a nurse, and Rodney Starmer, a toolmaker. His mother developed Still's disease. She attended St John's Anglican Church in nearby Hurst Green, while his father was an atheist. He was nominally "brought up Church of England". His parents were both Labour Party supporters, and reputedly named him after the party's first parliamentary leader, Keir Hardie, although Starmer did not confirm this when asked in 2015.

Starmer passed the 11-plus examination and gained entry to Reigate Grammar School, which at the time was a voluntary-aided selective grammar school. The school converted into an independent fee-paying school in 1976, while he was a student. The terms of the conversion were such that his parents were not required to pay for his schooling until he turned 16, and when he reached that point, the school, by now a charity, awarded him a bursary that allowed him to complete his education there without any parental contribution. The subjects he chose to study in the sixth form during his last two years at school were mathematics, music, and physics, in which he achieved A level grades of B, B, and C. Among his classmates at Reigate were the musician Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), with whom Starmer took violin lessons; Andrew Cooper, who later became a Conservative peer; and the future conservative journalist Andrew Sullivan. According to Starmer, he and Sullivan "fought over everything ... Politics, religion. You name it."

Legal career

After being called to the bar, Starmer worked predominantly in criminal defence, 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 handled 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 became a barrister in 1987 at the Middle Temple, then a bencher in 2009. He served as a legal officer for the campaign group Liberty until 1990. After joining the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, he was its secretary (1988–92), treasurer (1992–95) and executive committee member (1996–99). As part of his involvement in the Haldane Society, he joined an academic trip to the Soviet Union on the eve of its collapse in 1991, meeting the Russian chief justice Vyacheslav Lebedev, led the society's delegation to Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and organised the UK delegation to the 14th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in Cape Town in 1996, meeting President Nelson Mandela. Starmer joined the newly founded Doughty Street Chambers in 1990 and worked primarily on human rights matters.

Starmer has been called to the Bar in several Caribbean countries, where he defended convicts sentenced to the death penalty. In 1999, he was a junior barrister on Lee Clegg's appeal. Starmer assisted Helen Steel and David Morris in the McLibel case, at the trial and appeal in English courts, also representing them before the European Court of Human Rights. Starmer was appointed Queen's Counsel on 9 April 2002, aged 39. In the same year, he became joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. In 2005 Starmer called his Queen's Counsel appointment "odd" as he had previously expressed support for the abolition of the monarchy.

Starmer wrote legal opinions and marched in protest against the Iraq War following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and said in 2015 that he believed the war was "not lawful under international law because there was no UN resolution expressly authorising it". He defended one of the Fairford Five who broke into the RAF Fairford military air base in 2003 and disabled equipment in order to disrupt military operations at the start of the Iraq War.

Human rights defender

Starmer served as a human rights defender to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Association of Chief Police Officers, and was also a member of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Death Penalty Advisory Panel from 2002 to 2008. The Northern Ireland Board was an important part of bringing communities together following the Good Friday Agreement, and Starmer later cited his work on policing in Northern Ireland as being a key influence on his decision to pursue a political career: "Some of the things I thought that needed to change in police services we achieved more quickly than we achieved in strategic litigation ... I came better to understand how you can change by being inside and getting the trust of people".

Starmer represented Croatia at the genocide hearings before the International Court of Justice at The Hague in 2014, arguing that Serbia wanted to seize a third of Croatian territory during the Croatian War of Independence and eradicate the Croatian population.

Director of Public Prosecutions

In July 2008 Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General for England and Wales, named Starmer as the new Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He succeeded Ken Macdonald, who publicly welcomed Starmer's appointment, on 1 November 2008. Starmer was deemed to be bringing a focus on human rights into the legal system. In 2011 he introduced changes that included the "first test paperless hearing". During his time as DPP Starmer dealt with a number of major cases including the Stephen Lawrence murder case, where he brought his murderers to justice.

The United states attorney general Eric Holder reportedly secured Starmer's support for the extradition of the Scottish IT expert Gary McKinnon, who in 2001 had hacked into US military databases looking for information on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), on an interdict that could have led to a seventy-year jail sentence. The extradition was eventually blocked by Theresa May during her premiership.

In February 2010, Starmer announced the CPS's decision to prosecute three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer for offences relating to false accounting in the aftermath of the parliamentary expenses scandal; all were found guilty. Starmer prioritised rapid prosecutions of rioters over long sentences during the 2011 England riots, which he later concluded helped to bring "the situation back under control". In February 2012 Starmer announced that Chris Huhne would be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, stating in relation to the case that "[w]here there is sufficient evidence we do not shy away from prosecuting politicians".

In 2012 the journalist Nick Cohen published allegations that Starmer was personally responsible for allowing the prosecution of Paul Chambers to proceed, in what became known as the "Twitter joke trial". The CPS denied that Starmer was behind the decision, saying that it was the responsibility of a Crown Court and was out of Starmer's hands. When Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse crimes were exposed in 2012, Starmer said amid the subsequent scandal that "It was like a dam had bust and people rightfully wanted to know why he had been allowed to get away with it for so long." In 2013 Starmer announced changes to how sexual abuse investigations were to be handled amid Operation Yewtree, including a panel to review complaints.

Member of Parliament

My predecessor, the Right Hon. Frank Dobson, to whom I pay tribute, was a powerful advocate of the rights of everyone in Holborn and St Pancras throughout his highly distinguished parliamentary career. Widely respected and widely regarded, he served the people of Holborn and St Pancras for 36 years. Although I doubt I will clock up 36 years, I intend to follow in Frank Dobson's footsteps—albeit my jokes are likely to seem tame when compared with his, and I might give the beard a miss.

Starmer was selected in December 2014 as the Labour parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, a Labour safe seat, following the decision of Frank Dobson, its sitting MP, to retire. Starmer was elected at the 2015 general election with a majority of 17,048 (receiving 52.9 per cent of the vote). He was returned at the 2017 general election with an increased majority of 30,509 (70.1 per cent) at the 2019 general election with a reduced majority of 27,763 (64.9 per cent), and at the 2024 general election with a further reduced majority of 18,884 (48.9 per cent).

During the 2016 European Union membership referendum, Starmer supported the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union (EU). A member of the parliamentary groups Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Starmer was urged by a number of activists to stand in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election following the resignation of Ed Miliband as Leader of the Labour Party after Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election; he ruled this out, citing his relative lack of political experience at the time. During the leadership election Starmer supported Andy Burnham, who finished second to Jeremy Corbyn.

Shadow portfolios

Starmer was appointed to Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Home Office Minister in September 2015. He resigned from this role in June 2016 as part of the mass Shadow Cabinet resignations in protest at Corbyn's leadership following the 2016 EU Referendum result. Following Corbyn's re-election as leader in September 2016, Starmer accepted a new post from Corbyn as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. In this role, Starmer questioned May and her first ministry's destination for the UK outside of the EU, as well as calling for Brexit plans to be made public and supporting a proposed second referendum on Brexit. Following Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election, Corbyn announced that he would not lead Labour at the next general election after "a process of reflection". Starmer began to distance himself from Corbyn's leadership and many of the policies put forward at the general election, later saying in 2024 that he was "certain that we would lose the 2019 election".

Labour leadership campaign

On 4 January 2020 Starmer announced his candidacy for the resultant leadership election. He gained support from the former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. During the Labour leadership campaign, Starmer ran a left-wing platform and positioned himself in opposition to austerity, stating that Corbyn was right to position Labour as "the party of anti-austerity". He indicated he would continue with the Labour policy of scrapping tuition fees as well as pledging "common ownership" of rail, mail, energy and water companies, and called for ending outsourcing in the NHS, local government and the justice system. Starmer was declared the winner of Labour's leadership contest on 4 April 2020, defeating his rivals, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, with 56.2 per cent of the vote in the first round.

It is the honour and the privilege of my life to be elected as Leader of the Labour Party. I want to thank Rebecca and Lisa for running such passionate and powerful campaigns and for their friendship and support along the way. I want to thank our Labour Party staff who worked really hard and my own amazing campaign team, full of positivity, with that unifying spirit. I want to pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyn, who led our party through some really difficult times, who energised our movement and who's a friend as well as a colleague. And to all of our members, supporters and affiliates I say this: whether you voted for me or not I will represent you, I will listen to you and I will bring our party together.

Leader of the Opposition (2020–2024)

Having become Leader of the Opposition during the COVID-19 pandemic, Starmer said in his acceptance speech that he would refrain from "scoring party political points" and would work with the Government "in the national interest". He later became more critical of HM Government's response to the pandemic following the Partygate scandal. On 13 December 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Starmer recorded a Christmas message at Waheed Alli, Baron Alli's house, urging the public to work from home, while giving the impression he was in his own home, with a family picture behind him. In May 2022, Starmer said he would resign were he to receive a fixed penalty notice for breaching COVID-19 regulations while campaigning during the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election and local elections the previous year. The controversy surrounding the event was dubbed "Beergate". In July 2022, Durham Police cleared Starmer and said that he had "no case to answer". In the following month, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, found that Starmer had breached the MPs' code of conduct on eight occasions by failing to register interests.

Amidst the historic number of ministers resigning from Boris Johnson's government in July 2022, Starmer proposed a vote of no confidence in the Government, stating that Johnson should not be allowed to remain in office. Starmer also criticised Johnson, as well as his successors Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, for issues such as the Chris Pincher scandal and the subsequent government crisis, the economic crisis resulting from the 2022 mini-budget and subsequent government crisis, the cost of living crisis, and the industrial disputes and strikes including National Health Service strikes.

As Labour leader Starmer focused on repositioning the Party away from the Left and the controversies that affected Corbyn's leadership, with promises of economic stability, tackling small-boat crossings, cutting NHS waiting times and "rebuilding the NHS", worker rights enrichment, energy independence and infrastructure development, tackling crime, improving education and training, reforming public services, renationalising the railway network, and recruiting 6,500 teachers. Starmer also pledged to end antisemitism within the Labour Party. In October 2020, following the release of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)'s report into antisemitism in the Labour Party, Starmer accepted its findings in full and apologised to Jews on the Party's behalf. In February 2023 the EHRC said that changes the party had made to its complaints and training procedures meant that the Labour Party no longer needed to be monitored by them.

Shadow cabinet

Starmer's shadow cabinet initially comprised both the right and left of the Labour Party. Starmer reshuffled his shadow cabinet three times – firstly in May 2021, secondly in November 2021, and finally in September 2023. Starmer's reshuffles reduced the representation of the left and soft left on the opposition frontbench, while increasing the representation of the party's right. Notable changes included Rachel Reeves replacing Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor, the demotion of Lisa Nandy from Shadow Levelling-Up Secretary to Shadow Minister for International Development, and the replacement of Chief Whip Nick Brown with Alan Campbell. Resignations from Starmer's shadow cabinet included Andy McDonald and Rosena Allin-Khan.

Local election results

Starmer considered resigning after Labour's mixed results in the 2021 local elections, the first local elections of his leadership, but later felt "vindicated" by his decision to stay on, saying, "I did [consider quitting] because I didn't feel that I should be bigger than the party and that if I couldn't bring about the change, perhaps there should be a change. But actually, in the end, I reflected on it, talked to very many people and doubled down and determined, no, it is the change in the Labour Party we need".

During Starmer's tenure as Opposition Leader, his party suffered the loss of a previously safe Labour seat at the 2021 Hartlepool by-election, followed by holds at the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, 2022 Birmingham Erdington by-election and 2022 City of Chester by-election, as well as a gain from the Conservatives at the 2022 Wakefield by-election. During the 2023 local elections, Labour gained more than 500 councillors and 22 councils, becoming the largest party in local government for the first time since 2002. Labour made further gains at the 2024 local elections, gaining from the Conservatives at the Blackpool South by-election and narrowly winning the West Midlands mayoral election.

2024 general election

On 22 May 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that a general election would be held on 4 July 2024. Labour entered the general election with a large lead over the Conservatives in opinion polls (which had been the case since 2022), and the potential scale of the party's victory remained a topic of discussion throughout the campaign.

In June 2024 Starmer released the Labour Party's 2024 manifesto, Change, which focused on economic growth, planning system changes, infrastructure, what Starmer describes as "clean energy", healthcare, education, childcare, and strengthening workers' rights. It pledged a new publicly owned energy company (Great British Energy), a "Green Prosperity Plan", reducing patient waiting times in the NHS, and renationalisation of the railway network (Great British Railways). Promising wealth creation together with "pro-business and pro-worker" policies, the manifesto also pledged giving 16-year-olds the vote in all elections, reforming the House of Lords, and to tax private schools, with money generated going into improving state education. On taxes, the day after the manifesto was released, Starmer pledged that not only would income tax, National Insurance, and VAT not be increased, but that, per their manifesto, their plans were fully costed and funded and would not require tax increases.

Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory at the general election, characterised by commentators as a "loveless landslide", ending fourteen years of Conservative government with Labour becoming the largest party in the House of Commons. Labour achieved a 174-seat simple majority and a total of 411 seats, the party's third-best ever result in terms of seat-share (following the 1997 and 2001 general elections). The party became the largest in England for the first time since 2005, in Scotland for the first time since 2010 and retained its status as the largest party in Wales. Despite this, Labour won 34 per cent of the vote – the lowest of any party forming a majority government in the post-war era, leading to concerns about the proportionality of the election.

In his victory speech Starmer thanked Labour Party workers for their work – including nearly five years of revamping and rebranding Labour in the face of Conservative dominance – and urged them to savour the moment, but warned them of challenges ahead and pledged his government would seek "national renewal":

Premiership (2024–2026)

Appointment

As the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons, Starmer was appointed prime minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service by King Charles III on 5 July 2024, becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010 and the first one to win a general election since Tony Blair in 2005. He also became the first prime minister to enter office with a knighthood since Alec Douglas-Home. Starmer and his wife, Victoria, were driven from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street. Starmer stopped the car on the way back from the palace to go on a walkabout in Downing Street to meet cheering crowds.

In his first speech as prime minister, Starmer paid tribute to his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, saying "his achievement as the first British Asian prime minister of our country should not be underestimated by anyone" and he also recognised "the dedication and hard work he brought to his leadership", but added that the people of the UK had voted for change:

You have given us a clear mandate, and we will use it to deliver change. To restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives, and unite our country. Four nations, standing together again, facing down, as we have so often in our past, the challenges of an insecure world. Committed to a calm and patient rebuilding. So with respect and humility, I invite you all to join this government of service in the mission of national renewal. Our work is urgent and we begin it today.

Other world leaders, including Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau, as well as Blair and Brown, congratulated Starmer upon his appointment as prime minister. One of his first acts was to declare the Rwanda asylum plan "dead": the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, would establish a Border Security Command to tackle smuggling gangs which facilitate illegal migrant crossings over the English Channel. Starmer went on a tour of the four nations of the UK, meeting with leaders including John Swinney, Michelle O'Neill, and Vaughan Gething. He also met the twelve regional mayors and announced the establishment of the Council of the Nations and Regions. On 24 July 2024 he attended his first Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons.

Cabinet

Starmer set about appointing a new Cabinet, which first met on 6 July, and he completed his ministerial appointments on 7 July. Parliament was then recalled to meet on 9 July. Among Starmer's ministerial appointments were the scientist Patrick Vallance as Minister of State for Science, the rehabilitation campaigner James Timpson as Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation, and the international law expert Richard Hermer as Attorney General for England and Wales, who were created life peers to sit in the House of Lords. The new government also contains a few ministers from the New Labour Blair/Brown governments, including Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, and Ed Miliband in Cabinet, and Jacqui Smith and Douglas Alexander as junior ministers.

In September 2025, Starmer's deputy Angela Rayner resigned over a tax scandal in what was described as a damaging blow to Starmer's leadership. Following Rayner's resignation, Starmer conducted the first major reshuffle of his premiership.

Peter Mandelson

In December 2024, Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson to serve as British ambassador to the United States. Starmer dismissed Mandelson in September 2025 over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. In February 2026, during Prime Minister's Questions, Starmer said that Mandelson had "lied repeatedly" during vetting about his long-term relationship with Epstein. Starmer said he regretted the appointment and announced that, with the King's agreement, Mandelson had been removed from the Privy Council for bringing it into disrepute. The Mandelson scandal was significant for his premiership, and led to the resignation of Starmer's Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney on 8 February 2026 as well as his Director of Communications Tim Allan the following day. Hours after Allan announced his resignation, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to quit as Prime Minister, but cabinet ministers responded by voicing their support for Starmer.

In April 2026, it was reported that Mandelson had failed security vetting for the role of ambassador. The Foreign Office, which Starmer accused of deliberately withholding information from him, overruled the recommendation of the vetting agency and allowed Mandelson to take up the post. Starmer faced calls to resign over allegations he misled Parliament when he said "full due process" was followed during the appointment.

Public opinion

Starmer was viewed unfavourably by the British public during his tenure as prime minister. Starmer's average approval rating fell from +5% after the election to −30% by January 2025 before levelling off until April 2025 when it began to decline further, reaching −46% by November that year. A poll by Ipsos indicates that Starmer is the most unpopular prime minister since Ipsos's records began in 1977. It found 13% of the public were satisfied with Starmer's job performance, 79% dissatisfied, giving a net approval rating of minus 66. Starmer's average net approval remained higher than Boris Johnson's during the Partygate scandal, Jeremy Corbyn's when he resigned as Labour leader and when Liz Truss resigned as prime minister.

Starmer's unpopularity was tied to poor results for Labour in the 2025 United Kingdom local elections, 2026 United Kingdom local elections and 2026 Senedd election. An opinion-piece in Politico viewed this as a likely catalyst for a leadership challenge.

In September 2025, The Guardian reported that plans to replace Starmer had begun among groups of MPs. The reports were instigated by briefings to the media from Starmer's allies, which stated that he would resist any attempted challenge to his leadership. By November, further reports emerged that plans to replace Starmer with Wes Streeting could be enacted after the November 2025 United Kingdom budget. Shortly thereafter, Clive Lewis became the first Labour MP to publicly call for Starmer's resignation.

A YouGov poll for The Times in February 2026 indicates that 51% of respondents thought Starmer was either more sleazy or as sleazy as Boris Johnson. The poll found that 43% of participants did not think Starmer had handled the Peter Mandelson scandal well; 23% thought that he had; 14% thought Starmer had shown good judgement in his handling of the affair.

Domestic policy

Domestically, Starmer said that his primary concerns would be economic growth, reforming the planning system, infrastructure, energy, healthcare, education, childcare, and strengthening workers' rights, as set out in Labour's 2024 election manifesto. The 2024 State Opening of Parliament outlined 39 bills that Labour proposed to introduce in the months ahead, including ones to renationalise the railways, to bring local bus services under local public control, to strengthen the rights of workers, to tackle illegal immigration, to reform the House of Lords, and to undertake a programme to speed up the delivery of "high quality infrastructure" and housing. In addition, a number of bills proposed by the previous Conservative government were also included, notably the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which featured in the 2023 King's Speech, but had been abandoned when the election was called. Skills England, a body whose objective will be to reduce the need for overseas employees by improving skills training for people in England, was launched on 22 July.

The new chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, accused the previous government of leaving a £21.9 billion "black hole", and announced on 29 July 2024 that certain winter fuel payments would be scrapped for around 10 million pensioners. Following criticism of the plan, Starmer defended the scrapping of these winter fuel payments, arguing that he had to make "tough decisions to stabilise the economy". On 10 September 2024, the government benches defeated a Conservative Party motion in Parliament by a majority of 120 to block the measure. On 9 June 2025, the government, in what was described as a 'major U-turn', announced that it would reverse most of the cuts, restoring winter fuel payments to 9 million pensioners, citing improved public finances.

Starmer's Labour Government inherited a number of ongoing industrial disputes from the preceding Conservative Government and agreed on pay deals with trade unions representing NHS and railway workers, ending strikes in the first few months of taking office. In August 2024, Starmer's government agreed to increase public-sector worker pay by 5 to 7 per cent.

On 10 October 2024, the Government introduced the Employment Rights Bill, which became an Act of Parliament in December 2025. This includes an increase in minimum wages and a number of rights, such as immediate protection against unfair dismissal and the entitlement for employees to request flexible working arrangements unless the employer can demonstrate that such arrangements are impractical. The government's inaugural International Investment Summit was held on 14 October 2024 at the Guildhall in London.

Defence

On 25 February 2025, Starmer announced that the previous government's commitment to reaching 2.5% of GDP spending on defence by 2030 would be brought forward to April 2027. This would be funded by reducing the official development assistance budget from 0.5% to 0.3%. George Robertson, a former Secretary General of NATO and Labour politician, led the 2025 Strategic Defence Review to guide the future increased spending, with Starmer commenting that the UK was moving to "war-fighting readiness" and that "everything we do will add to the strength of NATO".

In June 2025, Starmer announced the purchase of F-35A aircraft capable of deploying US nuclear weapons as part of NATO's dual capable aircraft nuclear mission, which his office said would be "the biggest strengthening of the UK's nuclear posture in a generation".

The Defence Investment Plan to implement the review was expected to be issued in autumn 2025. However this was delayed amid warnings that there was a £28 billion funding gap for shortfalls on previous commitments. The Public Accounts Committee reported that the delay was undermining the UK's credibility with NATO allies and confidence within the defence industrial base. On 11 June 2026, just before the planned Defence Investment Plan publication, Defence Secretary John Healey and his junior minister Al Carns resigned citing disagreement with the very limited spending increase given in the plan.

The Defence Investment Plan was announced by Starmer on 30 June 2026, after he had announced his resignation as prime minister and Leader of the Labour Party. The plan increased spending by about £1.5 billion over the previous draft, though funding for all the spending was not initially allocated.

Foreign policy

Politico reported that Starmer divided his time half and half between foreign and domestic matters, and in his first 17 months as prime minister visited 44 countries on 37 trips from the UK. Starmer said it would not be possible for a Prime Minister to spend less time on foreign matters in current circumstances.

In July 2024, following the 2024 general election, US president Joe Biden congratulated Starmer on "a hell of a victory". Starmer and Biden discussed their shared commitment to the Special Relationship between the US and the UK, as well as their mutual support of Ukraine.

Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July 2024, the former president of the United States at the time, Starmer posted on Twitter saying "Political violence in any form has no place in our societies" and extended his best wishes to Trump and his family.

In September 2024, during a visit to New York City to address the UN General Assembly, Starmer met the American Republican Party presidential candidate, Trump, at Trump Tower. Following the meeting, Starmer said it was "good" to have met with Trump and that the meeting was an opportunity for both Trump and Starmer to establish a working relationship. Following Trump's election victory in the 2024 United States presidential election, Starmer called Trump to formally congratulate him on 6 November and was assured that the "special relationship" between the United Kingdom and United States "would continue to thrive".

In February 2025, Starmer met with President Trump at the White House to discuss continued support to Ukraine and a potential peace deal. They additionally discussed a potential trade deal. He also presented a handwritten letter from King Charles III inviting the President to a historic second state visit to the UK.

In June 2025 Starmer supported Israel in the Twelve-Day War and United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, stating that "Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat".

The first overseas meeting Starmer attended as prime minister was the 2024 NATO summit held in Washington from 9 to 11 July 2024. On the flight to the summit, Starmer laid out a "cast iron" commitment to increase defence spending to the NATO target of 2.5 per cent of GDP in line with the NATO target, following a "root and branch" review of British armed forces.

2026 leadership crisis and resignation

In May 2026, Starmer faced a political crisis following reports of internal divisions within the Labour government and speculation over his future leadership, following on from poor popularity ratings in opinion polls from soon after he became prime minister. The crisis intensified after the resignation of several senior ministers and growing criticism from factions within the Labour Party concerning economic policy, immigration, and electoral strategy. Media outlets reported discussions among Labour MPs regarding potential leadership alternatives, including senior cabinet figures and regional mayors. During a cabinet meeting, Starmer rejected calls to resign and challenged critics within the party to formally contest the leadership if they wished to replace him. Under Labour Party rules, a leadership challenge would require the support of 20 per cent of Labour MPs.

On 22 June 2026, Starmer announced his intention to resign as prime minister and Leader of the Labour Party and asked the party's National Executive Committee to set the timetable for choosing his successor, with nominations due to open on 9 July and the process to conclude before the summer recess. Starmer is to remain in his positions until the conclusion of the leadership election.

On 20 July 2026 Starmer formally tendered his resignation to Charles III at Buckingham Palace and was officially succeeded by Burnham hours later.

Post-premiership (2026–present)

Upon leaving office as prime minister, Starmer's spokesperson said he intended to remain an MP after he had formally resigned his premiership, but was likely to move to the backbench rather than accept a post in Burnham's cabinet. However, hours before the parliament returned from summer recess on 1 September, Starmer announced that he is standing down as an MP to focus on a role in international affairs, and left the Commons later the same day upon his appointment to the Chiltern Hundreds, triggering the 2026 Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

Political positions

Starmer's political positions changed significantly after the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, which he won on a ten-pledge, left-leaning platform. Most of the pledges, including increasing income tax on the top 5 per cent of earners, abolishing university tuition fees, and support for freedom of movement, were abandoned or substantially changed during Starmer's tenure as Labour and Opposition leader. Starmer defended changing positions on these issues, stating that shifting economic circumstances made these pledges unrealistic.

Some commentators, judging that Starmer has led his party towards the political centre in order to improve its electability, attempt to liken what he has accomplished in this regard with Tony Blair's development of New Labour. Others regard his changes of policy as testament that Starmer holds no clearly defined philosophy. A third group think that Starmer does subscribe to a definite ideology and that it is towards the left end of the socialist spectrum, arguing that "Labour under Starmer has advanced a politics of anti-neoliberalism like that of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell", and that Starmer "differs markedly from New Labour" in "aspiring to restructure an economic model perceived to have failed".

Figures including Starmer's former boss – the barrister Geoffrey Robertson – his former advisor Simon Fletcher, and the journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne, have described Starmer as exhibiting an authoritarian approach. In office, he initiated plans to garner support from authoritarian-leaning voters.

Despite the lack of consensus as yet about the character and even existence of Starmer's ideology, it has acquired a neologism, Starmerism, and his supporters have been called Starmerites. Starmer's advisor Morgan McSweeney is often credited with having significantly influenced Starmer's political positions.

In April 2023 Starmer gave an interview to The Economist on defining Starmerism. In this interview, two main strands of Starmerism were identified. The first strand focused on a critique of the British state for being too ineffective and over-centralised. The answer to this critique was to base governance on five main missions to be followed over two terms of government: these missions would determine all government policy. The second strand was the adherence to an economic policy of "modern supply-side economics" based on expanding economic productivity by increasing participation in the labour market, reducing inequality, expanding skills, mitigating the impact of Brexit and simplifying the construction planning process.

Personal life

Starmer met Victoria Alexander, then a solicitor, in the early 2000s. At the time he was a senior barrister with Doughty Street Chambers, and they were working on the same case. They became engaged in 2004 and married on 6 May 2007 at the Fennes Estate near Bocking, Essex. The couple have two children: a son, who was born a year after their wedding, and a daughter, born two years later. Prior to moving into Downing Street, the family lived in a townhouse in Kentish Town, north-west London. In 2026 two foreign nationals were convicted at the Old Bailey of conspiring to carry out arson on the property and on a vehicle connected to the Starmer family.

Starmer is a pescatarian, and his wife is a vegetarian. They raised their children as vegetarians until they were 10 years old, at which point they were given the option of eating meat. In an interview during the 2024 general election campaign, Starmer said that his biggest fear about becoming prime minister was how it might impact his children, due to their "difficult ages" and how it would be easier if they were younger or older. During the 2024 general election campaign, Starmer said in an interview that he would try to avoid working on Friday evenings in order to observe Shabbat dinners and spend time with his family.

Starmer is an atheist and chose to take a "solemn affirmation" (rather than an oath) of allegiance to the monarch in 2022. He has said that although he does not believe in God, he recognises the power of faith to bring people together and has been supportive of raising his children in the Jewish faith. He regularly accompanies his family to services at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in North London. Starmer is a keen footballer, having played for Homerton Academicals, a north London amateur team. He is a long-standing supporter of the Premier League football club Arsenal, holding a season-ticket at the Emirates Stadium. He takes his seat on match-days as a guest in the club's directors' box, which he says is due to security concerns as prime minister.

From September 2024 until July 2026, Starmer and his family kept a Siberian cat, named Prince, at 10 Downing Street.

On 26 December 2024, Starmer's brother Nick died following a cancer diagnosis. Starmer issued a statement the next day paying tribute to him.

Awards and honours

Starmer took silk in 2002, when he was appointed Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel). In 2005, he received the Bar Council's Sydney Elland Goldsmith Award for his contribution to pro bono legal work challenging the death penalty in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and the Caribbean.

For services to law and criminal justice, Starmer was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours. The appointment entitled him to wear the Order's badge and star on appropriate occasions.

Starmer was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, in 2022. In 2025, Time included him in the Time 100, its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.

On 13 July 2026, French president Emmanuel Macron appointed Starmer a Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, in recognition of his contribution to European security and his role in establishing the "coalition of the willing" in support of Ukraine. Three days later, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded him the Order of Liberty, Ukraine's highest state decoration that may be conferred on a foreign national, in recognition of his support for Ukraine and its defence against the Russian invasion.

Orders and decorations

Order of the Bath — Knight Commander (KCB), 31 December 2013

Légion d'honneur — Grand Officier, 13 July 2026

Order of Liberty — Member (MOB), 16 July 2026

Privy Council

Starmer was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council on 19 July 2017, entitling him to use the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable".