London (AFP) – UK leader Keir Starmer swept to power in July 2024 promising to end years of chaos in British politics but has angered voters with numerous U-turns and controversies.
Issued on: 19/06/2026 - 12:12
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Now he faces a likely leadership bid by popular party veteran Andy Burnham after the Greater Manchester mayor won a decisive by-election in the northwest.In his first speech as prime minister on July 5, 2024, Starmer promised a government of "service" that would "tread more lightly" on people's lives following 14 years of Conservative rule dominated by Brexit and infighting.He sought to make a virtue of his more measured approach, contrasting what he saw as his pragmatic managerialism with the ideological bombast of previous Tory prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss."There's no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be," the man himself is said to have told colleagues, according to "Get In", a book about his leadership of the Labour party written by journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund.But soon after entering Downing Street, he struggled to be the safe pair of hands he had portrayed, while his lack of ideology and charisma has left him struggling to sell a story of where he is taking the country.He insisted on Friday that "there's more to do and that's what I'm focusing on" as he faced further calls from some of Labour's approximately 400 MPs to step down to avoid a bitter leadership challenge from Burnham and possibly other contenders.Successful careerStarmer, born on September 2, 1962, was raised in a small semi-detached house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father who loved animals and rescued donkeys.
