Keir Starmer

Given the state of the British Conservative Party, all Keir Starmer has had to do is stay still. The Labour Party leader is poised to be among the many center-left leaders in the West — think Joe Biden, Anthony Albanese, Olaf Scholz — whose very lack of luster appears to have won them votes. Starmer’s calculated middle-of-the-road approach after the divisiveness of the Corbyn years is meant to win back the “red wall” seats in northern England that Labour lost in 2019, and steal some of the Tory voters disillusioned with their party.

With Labour’s controversies around anti-Semitism and Brexit in the past, Starmer’s got his house in order. And he’s gotten better at ripping into whoever’s leading the country on Wednesday afternoons during prime minister’s questions. Amid a cost-of-living-crisis, Starmer’s talking about mortgages, heating homes and affording food — in contrast to former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax cuts for the rich, which were quickly overturned. Starmer is also likely to benefit as Truss’ replacement as Tory leader and British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, considers raising taxes and cutting spending to balance the United Kingdom’s books.

As Starmer faces his newest opponent, his humble background and former career as a human rights lawyer will sharply contrast Sunak’s, an ex-Goldman Sachs executive married into one of India’s wealthiest families. The U.K. doesn’t have to have an election until 2024, and given how low the Tories are polling it’s unlikely they will call one earlier. But this is the U.K., where heads of lettuce outlast Tory prime ministers. Now, it’s looking likely that Labour leaders can, too.

Source: Politico