Robert Harris: “Great politicians are like novelists”
The writer on Keir Starmer, Labour’s “grim” inheritance and his desire to reinvent the past.
ByKeir Starmer
Keir Rodney Starmer is a Labour Party politician who became Prime Minister on 5 July 2024. He has been MP for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015 and leader of Labour since April 2020. Starmer, born in 1962, studied law at the University of Leeds and Oxford, then became a barrister specialising in human rights. In 2008 he was appointed director of public prosecutions, for a five-year term. Find news, comment, and analysis about him here.
Labour’s winter fuel revolt
Keir Starmer must forge a politics of generational solidarity. The crises the UK faces require collaboration, not conflict.
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Keir Starmer must tell a better story
The Prime Minister needs to offer hope as well as gloom.
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Letter of the week: Tolerance prevails
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Keir Starmer has a chance to dominate the common ground
The Prime Minister is closer to voters on the economy and law and order than Nigel Farage and the Conservatives…
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England in pieces
Keir Starmer has imposed order after the riots. But now he must lead a national renewal.
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Keir Starmer’s Elon Musk problem
The rancour of X’s digital square has spilled on to the English high street.
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A different kind of weather
The anti-complacency mindset that guided Labour in opposition has been taken successfully into government.
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Ukraine could destroy Labour’s legacy
A well run domestic realm will mean nothing if Putin succeeds.
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Labour’s anti-intellectual moment
The past three decades have seen the Everymanification of British politics.
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Labour’s stormy summer
Britain is poised between hope and fear as Keir Starmer surveys the challenges ahead.
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Labour’s moral obligation to curtail nationalism
As Keir Starmer warns that nationalist sentiment is the fault of governments, he finds a new purpose for his party.
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Does the Labour government believe in anything?
This King’s Speech is our first chance to inspect the moral code behind “Starmerism”.
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Britain’s shock of the new
Keir Starmer’s people are in charge now – and the mood in the country is changed.
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Keir Starmer beyond the wall
He could be a great leader, if he breaks through the barrier of his own reserve
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The return of order
After a decade of Tory inertia, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has the opportunity to remake Britain.
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The Tory centre will not hold
The Conservative Party created Reform by embracing liberal extremism. What comes next may not be what Labour expects.
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Why foreign affairs will define the Starmer era
At the Nato summit, the threat posed by China, Russia and Trump will be impossible to ignore.
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What is Labour’s first-week strategy?
Keir Starmer and company are trying to build early momentum.
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Starmer’s victory speech was a display of humble realism
He wanted to show he understands the scale of the challenge ahead.
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