Is Keir Starmer a Good Fit For Party Leader?

After a historic election defeat in 2019, Corbyn resigned as leader of the labour party and as of 4th April 2020 Keir Starmer was elected as leader with 56.2% of votes. But who is he?

Starmer has been a Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancreas since 2015 and appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2016 as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. However, Starmer was a remainer and an advocate for a second referendum, he grew up in Surrey as one of four children with his parents supporting the Labour party and actually naming him after the party's first parliamentary leader, Keir Hardie. He comes from a typical working class background and is described as 'soft left'- supporting social ownership and investment in the UK's public services, including the NHS, as well as supporting Labour's anti-auserity proposals under Corbyn's leadership. During Starmer's leadership campaign, he pledged to create a 'Prevention of Military Intervention Act' this would only permit lawful military action with the support of the House of Commons and has consistently voted against reducing capital gains tax.

He has reshuffled his shadow cabinet after being urged to ditch Corbyn allies if elected, with Corbyn's defeat i think this is a good idea, it is clear that such a far left leader is not what the Labour party needs to win the next General Election. Starmer appointed former Labour leader Ed Milliband as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and has also appointed a prominent critic of Corbyn; Jess Phillips, who was also a leadership contender, as part of the shadow home affairs team, focussing on tackling domestic violence. Angela Rayner who won the contest to be Labour's deputy leader, is shadow first secretary of state and will also deputise for him at Prime Minister's Questions and in other key functions.

However, Conservative MP Tom Hunt begged the question whether a knighted member of the southern establishment can win back lost Labour votes from December. Many working class Labour voters have very socially-conservative attitudes, many of whom were attracted by the Conservatives clear pro-Brexit message, and a 'posh southern knight' is not the most obvious choice to lead them. Although, how realistic is it to have a working class Party Leader? When an average MP salary is around £80k, no MP is working class. Having a working class background definitely allows an individual to empathise and understand issues within the working class, which Starmer does, but no MP actually receives a working class salary. So to me, this is a Conservative MP attempting to criticise and undermine Starmer for not being 'working class enough' because of his position now, even though he comes from a family of Labour supporters. As well as this, there has been claims that Starmer helped Jimmy Saville evade justice in 2009, three years before his death during his former job as Director of Public Prosecutions and people are calling on him to apologise, however he issued a personal apology for the mistakes by the Crown Prosecution Service and announced a series of changes to improve the investigation of allegations by child victims back in 2013.

Overall, Starmer seems to be what the Labour Party need to re-gain their votes that they lost to the Conservatives this past election. His more centralised views come off as refreshing from Corbyn's far left ideas, and his pledges for the party can be seen as more realistic than what Corbyn had to offer. Labour's position on Brexit was practically non-existent; simply calling for another referendum, while i supported this idea it was clear the majority of the country did not and the Conservative Party thrived because of this. Unlike most Labour leaders, Starmer’s politics is rooted in extra-parliamentary politics and those instincts should be appealed to. He has a tough job of earning back the votes of the over 40s which Labour lacked last election, but with the rejection of Corbynism and with the exception of Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour can be seen to reinvent the party and attain the votes they need for the next election. Starmer is up against biased right-wing media which undermines democracy, especially how the BBC amplify and fail to properly interrogate Conservative propaganda; aimed at distorting and misrepresenting Labour policies, which pervades the broadcast media as well, despite Ofcom’s rules on impartiality and accuracy in election campaigns.

Obviously Starmer has a lot going against him and the Labour party as a whole, and while it is too early to say whether he will be the leader that the Party and public have been waiting for, it is clear with his shadow cabinet reshuffling, that he is ditching Corbynism and bringing the party back to the centre of left wing politics.