United Kingdom: moderate Keir Starmer, new Labor opposition leader

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The centrist and europhile Keir Starmer was widely elected this Saturday to head the British Labor Party, succeeding the very left Jeremy Corbyn with the challenge of relaunching the main opposition party, weakened and divided, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

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This 57-year-old former lawyer who has been in charge of Brexit for Labor for three years, who was a favorite, won with 56.2% of the votes of the party members, against his two rivals in their forties, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, according to the results communicated by the party.

In a televised speech broadcast just after his election, Keir Starmer immediately promised to overcome the many divisions that are eating away at the party: on the radical or more liberal line that Labor must adopt, but also between eurosceptics and pro-EU on the question of Brexit or the management of anti-Semitism within the party, which Jeremy Corbyn was unable to stem.

" On behalf of Labor, I apologize, " said Keir Starmer. He pledged to " root out the poison " of anti-Semitsime, " stain on the party ", clearly distinguishing himself from his predecessor, who had expressed his regrets only belatedly.

Clever but not charismatic

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the name of the winner was not announced as planned during a special conference but more modestly on the party's website, the candidates having recorded their speeches in advance in case of victory.

Perceived as skilful but not very charismatic, Keir Starmer undertook to put the party back on its feet and to lead it back to power after its scathing defeat in the legislative elections last December against the Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, marked in particular by the loss of popular strongholds traditionally acquired by Labor. The next legislative elections are scheduled for 2024.

It was the second electoral defeat for Jeremy Corbyn since his surprise election to head Labor in 2015 thanks to massive support from the base, and the worst since 1935.

Like the leaders of other opposition parties, Keir Starmer was invited by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to participate in a briefing on the new coronavirus epidemic next week. " As party leaders, we have a duty to work together during this time of national emergency ," Boris Johnson wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday. Keir Starmer pledged to collaborate " constructively " with the executive " in the national interest ", while saying that he would not fail to point out the weaknesses of the executive if necessary.

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