Keir Starmer’s rarely-seen spouse – awkward row, NHS job and ‘streetwise’ nature

Keir Starmer‘s first encounter together with his spouse Lady Victoria Starmer was a quite awkward one.

The 61-year-old politician, who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s high crew, moved into the limelight in 2020 – however his different half has chosen to stay largely out of the general public eye. Victoria, 60, hardly ever makes appearances alongside her husband, however helps him behind closed doorways to speak by means of methods to enhance the nation.

“She’s a streetwise, grounded, brilliant, gorgeous woman who wants as far as she can to get on with her own life and to protect it,” he advised the Sunday Mirror. “She loves working for the NHS. She loves the team that she’s working with. And she and I are doing our best to raise two happy and confident children and that matters hugely to us.”

Just like her husband, Victoria is a educated solicitor who now works within the NHS as an occupational well being employee. The pair married in 2007 – the 12 months earlier than Starmer grew to become Director of Public Prosecutions – and share two kids, a 15-year-old son referred to as Tony and a daughter, whose title was not made public. The couple met within the early 2000s when working as legal professionals, the place Victoria needed to provide Keir with paperwork for a case he was engaged on. But it appears her first impression of the Labour chief was lower than impressed.

According to Starmer’s unofficial biographer Nigel Cawthorne, writer of Keir Starmer: A Life of Contrasts: “He rang her and, having never spoken to her before, queried whether the brief she had sent him was less than ‘100 percent accurate’. Unflustered, Victoria firmly held her ground against the caller on the other side of the line, reassuring him that she knew her job and, after putting the phone down, said, ‘Who the f*** does he think he is?'”

Keir additionally recalled the primary encounter when talking on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories in 2020, explaining: “I was doing a case in court and it all depended on whether the documents were accurate. I [asked the team] who actually drew up these documents, they said a woman called Victoria, so I said let’s get her on the line.” He revealed how he ended up listening to her final remark. “She said, ‘Who the bleep does he think he is?’, then put the phone down on me. And quite right too.”

Keir reportedly took her for his or her first date on the Lord Stanley pub, in Camden, the place they now dwell in a £1.75 million townhouse in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency. The household of Victoria, who grew up within the close by Gospel Oak space, is initially from Poland with Jewish heritage. Although Keir is an atheist, he has talked about that their kids have been introduced up within the religion. In an interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Keir revealed: “It is perfectly true that my wife’s father is Jewish – they came from Poland – and my wife’s mother converted when they got married. There is a long tradition of family and faith there. We observe some of the practices, for example, Friday night prayers”.

And it seems that if ever Keir acquired into Downing Street, Victoria could be off doing her personal factor, in keeping with a Labour insider. “She’s quite sassy in that she’s quite unbothered by what he’s doing,” a supply advised the Telegraph final 12 months. “If he ever gets into Downing Street, she’s going to be very much leading her own life. She’s not going to be in the spotlight like Cherie Blair, but more of a background Sarah Brown-type figure. They have a great dynamic – she spends quite a lot of time taking the mickey out of him because he can be so serious. I’ve never known her to be particularly political – she’s always had her own interests.”