With Keir Starmer at their head, British Labor has chosen a moderate, Europhile figure, a former human rights lawyer, to lead the opposition in post-Brexit Britain.
Elected by a large majority, Saturday, April 4, this 57-year-old man with a square face managed to rally the centrists of the party, while managing to retain the support of the supporters of his predecessor, the far left Jeremy Corbyn.
Keir Starmer has succeeded in this bet by not throwing out the nettles either the program - which provides for massive nationalization - or the radicalism of the former leader of the Labor party, who has suffered in the December 12 legislative elections an unparalleled defeat since 1935 , notably due to the lack of clarity of its position on Brexit.
It's the honor and privilege of my life to be elected as Leader of the Labor Party.
I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and hope, so that when the time comes, we can serve our country again - in government. pic.twitter.com/F4X088FTYY
Responsible since 2016 within the party for this issue that has torn the country apart for more than three years, Keir Starmer has clearly distinguished himself from the wait-and-see line of Jeremy Corbyn, by declaring himself for a new referendum and especially for the maintenance of the Kingdom - United in the European Union.
Right after the vote which saw the "leave" win at 52% in June 2016, he was part of the rebellion movement within Labor against Jeremy Corbyn, strangled for his soft campaign for the maintenance in the EU.
Apologies for anti-Semitism in the Labor
Keir Starmer will have to rally and lead to victory a divided party, which has lost the keys to Downing Street to the Conservatives for ten years.
He will also have to clean up a party plagued by anti-Semitism, which Jeremy Corbyn is accused at best of not having fought enough, at worst of having let complacently prosper. This is also one of the commitments he made as soon as elected, apologizing for this "task" on the party.
Neither corbynist nor blairist (named after former Prime Minister Tony Blair, assumed liberalism), Keir Starmer declared in December to the Guardian: "I do not need the name of someone else tattooed on the forehead to know what I think. "
>> Read: United Kingdom: Corbyn's Labor or the chronicle of an announced debacle
Serious, sometimes even described as dull in front of a Boris Johnson, in power since July, and colorful, Keir Starmer has more of a legal profile than pure politics.
He has only been a member of Parliament since 2015, elected in the constituency of Holborn and Saint-Pancras in London. In the wake of Ed Miliband's resignation after the defeat of Labor - the worst since 1987 -, the relatives of Keir Starmer then urged him to embark on the race for the head of the party. Lacking experience, he will refuse and support Andy Burnham, beaten by Jeremy Corbyn.
Fatboy Slim schoolmate
Born on September 2, 1962, Keir Starmer's school friend was DJ Fatboy Slim, with whom he took violin lessons.
His father was a turner-fitter, his mother, a nurse suffering from a serious autoimmune disease, which led him to frequent hospitals since his youth. His wife, with whom he has two children, works for the NHS, the British public health service, which was at the heart of his campaign.
After studying law, in Leeds then Oxford, this football fanatic fan of Arsenal became a lawyer and specialized in the defense of human rights. This is how he will wage legal battles against the death penalty in the Caribbean or defend McDonald's employees who have been prosecuted for criticizing the brand.
In 2008, he went from defender to accuser, taking the head of the prosecution of England and Wales, a post he held until 2013.
During this period, he prosecutes MPs abusing their mandate fees, but is criticized for initially refusing to prosecute a police officer in the case of the death of a newspaper vendor during demonstrations. from 2009 at the G20 in London.
With AFP
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