Keir Starmer

The Right Honourable Sir
Keir Starmer
KCB KC MP
The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP
	Official portrait, 2017
Leader of the Opposition
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 4 April 2020
Monarchs	Elizabeth II; Charles III;
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson; Liz Truss; Rishi Sunak;
Deputy	Angela Rayner
Preceded by	Jeremy Corbyn
Leader of the Labour Party
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 4 April 2020
Deputy	Angela Rayner
General Secretary	Jennie Formby; David Evans;
Chair	Angela Rayner; Anneliese Dodds;
Preceded by	Jeremy Corbyn
2016–2020
Shadow portfolios
Shadow Secretary of State
2016–2020	Exiting the European Union
Shadow Minister
2015–2016	Immigration
Member of Parliament; for Holborn and St Pancras;
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 7 May 2015
Preceded by	Frank Dobson
Majority	27,763 (48.9%)
Director of Public Prosecutions
	In office; 1 November 2008 – 1 November 2013
Appointed by	The Baroness Scotland of Asthal
Preceded by	Ken Macdonald
Succeeded by	Alison Saunders
Personal details
Born	Keir Rodney Starmer; 2 September 1962 (age 61); London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Victoria Alexander (m. 2007)
Children	2
Education	University of Leeds (LLB); St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BCL);
Signature
Website	keirstarmer.com
	Keir Starmer's voice Starmer on the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal; Recorded 30 April 2014

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC (/ˈkɪər/ ^ⓘ; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. He was previously Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

Starmer was born in London and raised in Surrey, where he attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School, which became a private school while he was a student. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986. After being called to the bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights matters. Becoming a member of Doughty Street Chambers in 1990, he was appointed as Queen's Counsel (QC) in 2002. In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, holding these positions until 2013. On conclusion of his five-year term as DPP, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours.

Elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election, Starmer was appointed Shadow Minister for Immigration by new party leader Jeremy Corbyn in September 2015. He resigned in 2016 as part of the wider June 2016 British shadow cabinet resignations in protest at Corbyn's leadership, but accepted a new post under Corbyn later that year as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union following the EU membership referendum. Starmer advocated a second referendum on Brexit, in which he stated he would vote to "remain"; this policy was ultimately included in the 2019 Labour election platform.

After Corbyn resigned following Labour's 2019 general election defeat, Starmer won the party's 2020 leadership election. His leadership has been characterised by movement towards the political centre and abandonment of much of the left-wing platform of his leadership campaign, as well as by opposition to some of the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and issues such as Partygate, the September 2022 mini-budget, and the cost of living crisis. Starmer has emphasised the importance of eliminating antisemitism in the Labour Party. In 2023, he set out five missions for a Labour government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime, and education. Since late 2021, the party has maintained leads in opinion polling over the governing Conservative Party, often by very wide margins.