Keir Starmer shares relatable purpose his spouse is not on marketing campaign path

Keir Starmer has been praised for offering the perfect answer as to why his wife hasn’t been joining him on the campaign trail.

Mr Starmer was addressing speculation around his wife Victoria’s whereabouts during a call-in on LBC today, hosted by Nick Ferrari. He was quick to shut down any mystery around her absence – and listeners applauded the real reason as being very relatable.

The Labour leader told the show host that his wife hasn’t been out and about campaigning with him because she’s busy with her job working in occupational health in the NHS – a role Keir previously told the Sunday Mirror she loves. She is also focusing on supporting their son through his GCSE exams.

When quizzed on his wife, Mr Starmer said: “Vic does quite a bit with me, but during this campaign two things: One, she is working at the NHS in a hospital. Two, and I don’t make a lot of this, is our boy has been doing his GCSEs and therefore we took the decision that whilst I was out and about on the road, we wanted to create the environment where he could study calmly in ordinary circumstances.”

Listeners were quick to commend the politician for his response, with one taking to X, formerly Twitter, to write: “Well done both of them! Her job is important and hard to cover if she was on campaign trail. And GCSE’s are really important for their son.”

Another said: “A good parent as well as a public servant. I like Starmer’s wife already” while a third added “It’s 2024 . She’s got her own career, as have most people these days. Why should a spouse/partner trail around with candidates during an election campaign?”

When radio host Ferrari asked Mr Starmer further questions about Victoria, he replied: “She is very plain speaking and very down to earth. She is very supportive.”

After the LBC host asked if Mr Starmer’s wife ever gives him advice about work, the Labour leader said: “After the first debate I was slightly frustrated because I didn’t think the 45 seconds to answer a question really worked for me. I know why the programme set it up in that way.

“So I was pretty sort of – ‘argh!’ – frustrated. I am not good company when I am in that place. But Vic cheered me up on that one.”

Mr Starmer has repeatedly explained that he wants to keep his family mostly out of the spotlight, particularly his two children.

But in a recent interview with the Sunday Mirror, he gave rare insight into his relationship with his wife. “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,” he said.

Just like her husband, Victoria is a trained solicitor who now works in the NHS as an occupational health worker. The pair married in 2007 – the year before Mr Starmer became Director of Public Prosecutions – and share two children, a 15-year-old son called Tony and a daughter, whose name was not made public.

The couple met in the early 2000s when working as lawyers, where Victoria had to supply Keir with documents for a case he was working on.