LONDON — The candidate likely to become Britain’s next prime minister is a human rights lawyer who once called for the British monarchy to be abolished, but years later knelt before Charles, then prince of Wales, to be knighted. He was also rumored to be the 1990s inspiration for a brooding heartthrob character in the Bridget Jones movies. More recently, he took a knee in support of Black Lives Matter.
Keir Starmer, 61, is a social liberal, fiscal moderate and leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, which polls predict will win Thursday’s parliamentary election by a landslide. He's been a member of parliament since 2015, and leader of the opposition — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's main rival — since 2020. Starmer would be the first Labour leader to win a U.
K. general election in nearly 20 years, since Tony Blair in 2005. Over the past century, Labour has been in the opposition much more than in power.
But after 14 years of Conservative Party rule, several of them tumultuous — from Brexit, to Boris Johnson, to the economic instability of his successor Liz Truss — Starmer looks likely to benefit from the ruling party’s perceived missteps. Starmer promises , if elected, to restore competency to government, nationalize some railways and utility companies, raise the minimum wage, tax private school tuition, improve the public health system and offer free breakfast in public elementary schools. His election would put Britain on an opposite trajectory from Euro.
