I first met Kier Starmer in 2011 when he offered advice to Lord Falcolners Commission of Assisted Dying supported by Demos – see: https://demos.co.uk/research/the-commission-on-assisted-dying/  At that time he was Director of Public Prosecutions. His evidence was admirably clear amidst a range of questions. What became clear was that the the law from his perspective was unsatisfactory. While I remain opposed to any change in the law Starmer offered us a compassionate block of evidence of how the present inconsistencies were the cause of serious difficulties for the police. 

At coffee time there was a consensus amongst us – a public servant who is. one to watch ! I was particularly taken by his grasp of details ( he was free of any briefing notes but diligently wrote down some of the questions) and his unstuffy manner. Unusual I thought for a lawyer ! 

So well before any sigh of an election I bought this volume back in January this year and only now have managed to read it. It is carefully written and researched. Baldwin spent time with Starmer and those close to him. This shapes the portrait – ambitious, successful, a mobile working class Surrey boy. It is a good read and many reviewers underestimate his achievement with reform of a weak Labour Party into a party of power with its landslide victory in July 2024.

No human being is easy to capture. Most of us remain enigmatic – perhaps sometimes even a mystery to ourselves ! Class, education, opportunity ( earned or unearned ), parents and the places and people that have been our context for work all shape or misshape us!

It is worth remembering that Starmer brought into politics his passion for.human rights. He co-authored a 1,500-page tome on human rights in Africa, and worked tirelessly  to save Commonwealth prisoners from the death penalty.

Baldwin is a skilled biographer. He paints a complicated of Starmer’s childhood, particularly the fragilities that surrounded his  mother’s illness and a life of constant pain. Baldwin claims that from within this context you can understand Starmers’ reserve and sometimes lack of expressiveness. he does not step easily into the drama and peformativity of politics. It was interesting to see some of that being played out during the 2024 election campaign. 

Andrew Rawnsley writes “A challenging childhood, involving the death, illness or absence of one or both parents, is frequently to be found in the background of super-driven leaders”. 

There is grit and a fierce ambition that propelled forwards, Leeds University, then to Oxford, student politics, a young radical lawyer, hard work, an early riser all shaped his determination. Baldwin paints an honest and attractive picture: a man who is trustworthy, dependable, intelligent and genuinely wanting to make a difference. 

So what is Starmers politics ? It remains slightly shifting  and even fuzzy. Baldwin who is sympathetic in every  chapter shows his reader that  Sir Keir  is “a moving target” who is “hard to pin down”. We saw something of that in the election campaign. We know from political history that  all political careers end in failure. If Cameron, for example came to power by suppressing the Eurosceptics  was ultimately brought down by them, what might bring the Starmer project to an end? What will happen to the Labour left ? The middle ground of politics is weaker than the landslide labour victory suggests !  Extremism lurks in the strangest of places. 

You decide. This is biography at its balanced best. Let us  see what this new Prime Minister will deliver.