Keir Starmer: From Radical Lawyer To Labour Leader

Keir Starmer: From radical lawyer to Labour leader

Britain's new opposition Labour leader, Keir Starmer, fought the state as a young human rights lawyer before battling Brexit as an MP, and must now bring together his divided party to challenge Boris Johnson

London (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Apr, 2020 ) :Britain's new opposition Labour leader, Keir Starmer, fought the state as a young human rights lawyer before battling Brexit as an MP, and must now bring together his divided party to challenge Boris Johnson.

Serious and determined, the 57-year-old takes over from the veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn as Labour struggles to find its way.

The centre-left party has been out of office since 2010, and in December recorded its worst general election result since the 1930s as Johnson's Conservatives hoovered up votes in many of its former heartlands.

For the past few years, Labour has been riven by splits over Corbyn's unwavering left-wing agenda, how to approach Brexit and a row over the handling of claims of anti-Semitism in the party.

Starmer has vowed to unite the party and get it back on a path to power.

He wooed Corbyn's supporters by emphasising his own record as a human rights lawyer, insisting he is a socialist and defending December's manifesto, which promised a massive programme of investment and nationalisations.

But he also won backing from centrists in the party, who see him as more measured and more pragmatic than his predecessor.

"We can say what we like about how we want to change the world -- if we lose elections, we won't get the opportunity to do it," Starmer told the Guardian podcast this week.

He refuses to say what existing policies he would keep -- particularly now, in the upheaval of the coronavirus outbreak -- beyond saying that "radical things are going to be needed".

Political historian Steven Fielding, from the University of Nottingham, said his pitch as "the competent bureaucrat" was designed to appeal to a broad number of Labour members.

But it has left some asking what he actually stands for.

"No one questions his intellectual ability, but many do wonder about his capacity to inspire," commented Andrew Rawnsley, a political columnist with The Observer newspaper.