Political positions of Keir Starmer
Starmer succeeded Corbyn by winning the 2020 leadership election on a left-wing platform, pledging to uphold many of his predecessor's economic policies whilst working to end the issue of antisemitism within the party.Some commentators, judging that Starmer has led his party back to the centre ground to try to improve its electability, have likened what he has accomplished in this regard to Tony Blair's development of New Labour.[14] In a January 2020 interview, Starmer described himself as a socialist,[15] and stated in an opinion piece published by The Guardian the same month that his advocacy of socialism is motivated by "a burning desire to tackle inequality and injustice"."[17] In 2023, Starmer removed the ten socialism-based pledges that he had made in the 2020 party leadership contest from his website, after having abandoned or rolled back on many of these, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic situation as reasons for having to "adapt".He has pledged to abolish the House of Lords, which he has described as "indefensible", during the first term of a Labour government and to replace it with a directly elected Assembly of the Regions and Nations, the details of which will be subject to public consultation.[22] The report was published in 2022 and was endorsed and promoted by Starmer, and recommended the abolition of the House of Lords, extending greater powers to local councils and mayors, and deeper devolution to the countries of the UK.[23] Labour's 2024 election manifesto Change committed to the removal of the remaining hereditary peers from the chamber, setting a mandatory retirement age of 80, and beginning a consultation on replacing the Lords with a "more representative" body.[30] Opposing Scottish independence and a second referendum on the subject, the Labour Party under Starmer's leadership has set up a constitutional convention to address what he describes as a belief among people across the UK that "decisions about me should be taken closer to me".[61] In a 3 July 2024 statement to PinkNews ahead of the 2024 election, Starmer affirmed his party's support of LGBT+ rights, including strengthening protections against hate crimes targeting members of the LGBT community, "modernizing" the "intrusive and outdated" gender recognition framework, and a proposed, "trans-inclusive" ban on conversion therapy.[73] He has also committed to placing specialist domestic violence workers in the control rooms of every police force responding to 999 calls to support victims of abuse.[77] He later wrote amid the riots across the country following the stabbing that those who had "hijacked the vigil for the victims" had "insulted the community as it grieves" and that rioters would feel the full force of the law.[79] On 4 August, Starmer said that rioters "will feel the full force of the law" and told them "You will regret taking part in this, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves".[83] After Rudakubana's guilty plea on 20 January 2025, Cooper announced a public inquiry, stating that the victims' families "needed answers about what had happened leading up to the attack".[84] This was followed by Starmer's promise to overhaul terrorism laws to reflect the type of non-ideological killings characterised by individuals like Rudakubana, stressing the threat from “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.[85][86] On 2 January 2025, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the Labour government for not supporting a government-led inquiry into the Oldham child sexual exploitation scandal.[94] He also said that, under him, the CPS had "the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record", and that politicians and activists were "spreading lies and misinformation" over grooming gangs to appeal to the far-right."[101] Starmer has described the Labour Party as "deeply patriotic" and credits its most successful leaders, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, and Tony Blair, for policies "rooted in the everyday concerns of working people".Many people will think of Roger Waters as famous for being a member of one of the most important bands in history, but he is now more synonymous with spreading deeply troubling antisemitism and that is why I believe this show should not be allowed to go ahead."[130] In November 2024, Starmer met Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and told him he wanted to build a 'consistent, durable, respectful' relationship with China.During a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit, British journalists were forcibly removed by Chinese officials as Starmer addressed human rights issues.[137][138] Starmer aims to use the summit to reset relations with the EU, share ideas for a new Border Command to tackle migration and to sign a defence co-operation deal with Germany, based on the Lancaster House Treaties.[143][144] At the same time, he has called for much closer economic, diplomatic, and military collaboration between the UK and EU, and would seek to revisit the Brexit deal negotiated and implemented by Boris Johnson.He discussed a proposed UK-Germany treaty on defence and energy and met with French President Macron on 29 August 2024,to enhance cooperation on tackling illegal migration.After the murder of an American man named George Floyd by the police officer Derek Chauvin in the United States, against which numerous protests were held in the Western world, Starmer supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and took the knee alongside his deputy, Angela Rayner.In November 2024, Starmer offered his congratulations to Trump on a phone call after he won the 2024 United States presidential election, along with other world leaders, saying "I look forward to working with you in the years ahead.[158] He also criticised the Stop the War Coalition in an op-ed for The Guardian, writing that the group's members were "not benign voices for peace" but rather "[a]t best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders" such as Russian President Vladimir Putin "who directly threaten democracies.[172] In January 2024, Starmer said that Labour would recognize a State of Palestine as part of a multi-national peace process, rather than extending recognition immediately or unilaterally; this confirmed a recommendations from the party's policy forum in October 2023.[183][184][185] In July 2024, Starmer told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the UK would continue its "vital cooperation to deter malign threats" with Israel.[186] Under Starmer's premiership licences of some British arms sales to Israel were suspended in September 2024 because of a "clear risk" the weapons could be used in breach of international law.Lammy announced the UK Government's suspension of 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, affecting equipment such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones.
New LabourPremiership of Keir StarmerKeir StarmerVictoria StarmerLegal careerDirector of Public ProsecutionsMcLibel caseStephen Lawrence murder caseParliamentary expenses scandalRotherham child sexual exploitation scandal2011 England riotsTwitter joke trialOperation YewtreeLeadership of the OppositionLeadership electionShadow CabinetOpposition frontbenchMay 2021 reshuffleNovember 2021 reshuffle2023 reshuffleAntisemitism in the Labour PartyDossierVote of confidence in the Boris Johnson ministryBeergateElection date betting scandal2024 Labour manifestoPrime Minister of the United KingdomPremiershipMinistry2024 State Opening of ParliamentOctober 2024 budgetInternational tripsEnglish Channel migrant crossingsBorder Security CommandCost-of-living crisisIndustrial disputespostal workersstrikesGreat British EnergyFreebies controversyWinter fuel payment abolition backlashFarmers' tax protestsPlan for ChangeNew New LabourElectoral history2021 local elections2022 local elections2023 local elections2024 local elections2024 general electionendorsements2025 local electionsNext general electionLeader of the Labour PartyJeremy Corbynsoft leftred-greenSocialist AlternativesSocialist Lawyersocialist2020 leadership electionleft-wingantisemitism within the partyopposition leaderpolitical centreLabour leftTony Blairpopulismanti-neoliberalismJohn McDonnellan economic model perceived to have failedGeoffrey RobertsonSimon FletcherPeter OborneauthoritarianThe Economistmodern supply-side economicslabour marketBrexitconstruction planningKarl MarxThe GuardianFrancis ElliottCOVID-19 pandemicprogressivetax and spendlocalismdevolutionabolish the House of LordsConservative PartyGordon BrownBritish constitutional reformscountries of the UKChangeremaining hereditary peersmandatory retirement agesocial ownershipNational Health Service2020 Labour leadership electiontax avoidanceanti-austeritysocial inequalityhealthhomelessnessnatural environmentUniversal CreditScottish independencesecond referendumreunification of IrelandChancellorship of Rachel ReevesChancellorRachel Reevesclimate changedecarbonisefossil fuelsUK electricity gridShadow ChancellorChancellor of the Exchequerlegal immigration to the UKSkills EnglandVAT-exempt charitable statusIndependent Schools Counciluniversity tuition feesLiz Truss' premiershipfaith schoolsbreakfast clubsrenationalising the railways