"Starmer is peculiarly hard to pin down, especially for people who work in politics, because he resists being fitted into the clean lines within which politicians usually project themselves," wrote his biographer.
It is really "hard to pin down" who Starmer is. In Starmer's personality, we see many shades, even paradoxes.
'MY DAD WAS A TOOLMAKER, MY MOM A NURSE,' SAYS STARMER
Starmer is going to be the most working-class PM of the generation in the UK. He has defeated a man -- Rishi Sunak -- who some say was even richer than the royals.
Born to a toolmaker and a nurse, Starmer never had to think of or mention his origins till he entered politics.
"'My dad was a toolmaker and my mum was a nurse,' before adding – in words that these days might induce some form of aneurysm among those who have followed his interviews and speeches since – 'not everybody knows that and that’s because I don’t say it very often," wrote his biographer.
He was a human rights lawyer who became the adviser to the Northern Irish Policing Board, where he helped police officers justify their use of guns and plastic bullets. Starmer also spoke about unpaid bills and the phone being cut off.
They could not eat pasta or travel abroad. His father felt "very disrespected" working as a factory worker, revealed Starmer.
But Starmer moved beyond his circumstances and was the first in the family to attend University of Leeds, and then do a year at Oxford.
Now, he is helping families get their first mortgage as his family's humble home "was everything to my family — it gave us stability, and I believe every family deserves the same".
He would go on to be a lawyer.
STARMER BECOMES A LAWYER, BUT WILL LAW BE ENOUGH?
He was a human rights lawyer at the famous Doughty Street Chambers. He fought death penalty cases for Commonwealth countries and was even part of a legal team that got the death sentences of 417 people removed.
He would never mention his working-class roots to win a case. In fact, he was never a "jury's lawyer". He built his case with facts. His style was considered "forensic" even when he represented the opposition in the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
He was a problem solver, not a poser.
"He’ll walk around a problem, look at it from every angle, almost touch and feel it before working out what to do. If we can’t abolish the death penalty altogether, he’ll find ways to engage with the prosecutors in that country or the government. There’s no point in telling these countries that capital punishment is barbaric just to get some cheap applause – where does that get you?"
He had pragmatic solutions to radical problems and was more interested in getting solutions than posturing, wrote his biographer.
This side of his personality is what will be of great use in 10 Downing Street. A London-based lawyer who worked with him said he was always "looking 10 miles down the road."
He became the top prosecutor of the country. (courtesy 'India Today'
UK PM Starmer was a Trotskyist in his youth but has become a favourite of capitalists now.
As a lawyer, he helped over 400 people escape the gallows but defended police excesses too. The ambiguity in his personality might help him respond to changing situations and come up with pragmatic and radical solutions.
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