How Keir Starmer’s previous reveals what he could be like as Prime Minister

He is on the cusp of becoming our PM – and will be carrying the hopes of millions into No10.

But many are still wondering what kind of a leader Keir Starmer will be. How can we expect him to conduct himself, make the biggest calls, organise his government and behave on the world stage?

The bar has admittedly been set pretty low in recent years, with the leadership styles of the last three Prime Ministers ranging from bluster and overpromising by Boris Johnson to weakness and procrastination under Rishi Sunak.

Over the last few weeks of the campaign we have had glimpses of how different Prime Minister Starmer might be, and how he might be received by other world leaders.

But those who have worked with the Labour leader are convinced that when the work finally starts he will win over even his doubters – and even help restore the public’s faith in politics.

One is Patrick Stevens, a former colleague of Mr Starmer at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who remembers the way he treated all staff regardless of their jobs and quickly achieved impressive results during his seven years as Director of Public Prosecutions.

Patrick, who had been appointed head of the service’s International Division just before Mr Starmer took over the CPS in 2008, says he was “struck by how welcoming, collaborative and encouraging he was, how he really had no personal ego in the work, he was happy to surround himself with strong, good people and allow them to take the lead and the credit.

“There wasn’t a clique or an inner circle, anything like that, people were allowed to challenge him, he wanted everyone to contribute and be able to express their views.

“He delighted in other people’s success. And it wasn’t about him as an individual in any way at all, it was always about the results that were delivered.”

That didn’t mean he didn’t command respect. Patrick says: “He provided clear leadership. Everybody knew the standards to which he worked, and that it was expected of all of us.

“Whenever we did any work he knew the brief better than any of us. He was incredibly well liked across the CPS. He insisted that everybody could call him by his first name. There was no standing on title, no gradism.

“Everybody’s view was welcome and it was respected. He was very collaborative and consultative, but once a decision was made and a direction was set, he was very single-minded. We wouldn’t get distracted or bogged down in side issues, he made sure that we delivered.”

Patrick says he believes Mr Starmer will bring the same work ethic to his government. “I think it will be productive, focused, united and concentrated on delivery,” he says.

Tom Baldwin, author of Keir Starmer: The Biography, says that the Labour leader is a “stickler for rules” and will quickly stamp the same mark on No10 – overtaken by a “party culture” under Johnson, according to the Sue Grey report into lockdown law breaking.

“He’s very old fashioned in that sense,” he says. “That’s why he was so hurt when Durham police opened an investigation into Beergate. It offended him that anyone might think he was in any way similar to Johnson.

“He’s meticulous, he’s methodical, he likes to get across the details. He demands high standards of everyone. He doesn’t like meetings that go on and on without a point, he likes to get to a decision, and likes people in meetings to be businesslike and professional.

“He’s not your three words slogan kind of guy. You won’t hear him saying he has this big idea. I think they way we will get to know him as Prime Minister will be the way he responds to certain things and the decision he makes which will form a pattern. It won’t be a pattern that goes in straight lines necessarily, he will respond to each issue individually.

“I also don’t think he’s interested in being divisive. He’ll work with the Tories if it means he’ll get something done. What’s unusual about Keir is that he’s not guided so much by ideology, than by values. They’re quite recognisable, old-fashioned British values like patriotism, service, respect, and he reacts to certain things according to those values.”

Tom thinks a Starmer premiership will also be very different from the Blair years. “He also realises that some decisions take time. How many mistakes did the last Labour government make because decisions had to be taken with the 24-hour news cycle? He doesn’t and I think you’ll see him taking time to ensure he gets some decisions right.”

Mr Starmer – whose parents named him after Labour’s first parliamentary leader Keir Hardie – became a barrister in 1987 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002 aged 39.

He served as the legal advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board for five years at a critical time following the Good Friday Agreement, and also served as a human rights adviser to the Association of Chief Police Officers.

A year after being named ‘QC of the Year’ in 2007 he became Director of Public Prosecutions – running the service as public services were cut following the 2010 Tory election victory.

Tom says that many in the CPS were impressed with the way he valued the opinions of everyone – from cleaners to the top lawyers. “He is known for this, asking junior people what they think,” he says. “He often went round the country, and he would ask senior staff to leave so the junior staff could tell them what they really thought.”

Mr Starmer, who left the job and 2013 and became an MP in 2015, managed to make efficiencies while actually making the service better, something which won him the respect of Cameron’s budget-cutting government.

Patrick says: “Keir’s style was incredibly effective at a time when really dramatic cuts that were a bit of an existential threat to our ability to deliver. And yet despite that he delivered a public service that improved year on year. By the end of his term the Conservative government were asking him to stay on for a further term.

“So when people talk about where’s the money coming from, I think sometimes you the money doesn’t come from somewhere you just have to find other ways, and Keir has proved he can do that.”

During his tenure Mr Starmer increased the charge rate year on year, with significant improvements in the number of prosecutions and convictions for rape. He also introduced modernising reforms using new technology and ensured victims were better supported by introducing the Victims’ Right to Review in 2013.

Tom says that one of the achievements Keir was most proud of was moving paper files to digital records “which is so boring and so dull but it actually does make a difference in people’s lives. That’s really important. He’s all about outcomes rather than headlines and spectacular moments. He just wants to get on with it and make things better.”

Individual successes Mr Starmer worked on included helping bring Stephen Lawrence’s murderers to justice, changing the guidance to better support for victims of sexual and domestic violence, and prosecuting MPs for misuse of expenses.

One meeting, however, particularly affected him – with Penny and John Clough, the parents of Jane, a nurse who was stabbed to death by her estranged boyfriend in 2010 while he was on bail on charges of raping her. The traumatic case is behind the Labour leader’s determination to halve violence against women and girls within a decade if he wins office.

Tom says: “Her parents went to see Keir. It was just after his own daughter had been born. He sat for two hours in silence, and after the meeting was done vowed to get something done to change the law, which he did.

“Her story really ran deep with him. He still texts Jane’s parents every year on his daughter’s birthday to say, ‘I’m thinking of your daughter’. It’s a personal thing for him.”

Patrick says that Keir’s “passion for truth and justice is absolutely writ large through everything he does” but says he has another passion for “transparency and accountability” that was behind his Victims’ Right to Review which gave victims and bereaved families the right to challenge prosecutors’ decisions not to prosecute suspects.

He says: “It was unprecedented, this was opening up the CPS to external challenge at a level that it has never had before. Some people thought it was a highly challenging thing to bring in because they thought we’d be inundated with challenges, but Keir believed passionately that the CPS is there to serve the public and the public is entitled to challenge it appropriately.

“I recognise a lot of that in the way that he talks now about country first party second. When he was DPP it was very much public first, organisation second. We’re not here for ourselves, we’re here for the public and that was a very clear message that we all got.”

But does Mr Starmer have what it takes to make tough decisions, or put country before friendships if cabinet members slip up?

Tom believes he does. “I once asked Keir how he could be really decent on the one hand, and on the other hand so ruthless as to demote some of his closest friends, like Nick Thomas-Symonds, Jenny Chapman and Ed Miliband. He said ‘I don’t have a problem with that, I have to be decent to the British people and so do what I have to do.

“I asked him if he’d be as ruthless in government if someone as vital as Rachel Reeves breached the rules. ‘It doesn’t matter who it is, they’ll be sacked,’ he replied.”

Patrick believes it is Mr Starmer’s passions combined with his level-headedness and experience in running a major organisation that could make him one of the best PM’s our country has seen – and a major player on the world stage.

He says: “He has a track record of working in some of the most challenging environments, on some of the most serious and complex cases, work that was often literally a matter of life and death and which had ramifications around the world. What he did in the CPS, and what he’s done in changing the Labour Party, has been very dramatic in a short period of time.

“His ability to set a clear path, make very difficult decisions in very difficult circumstances and create a consensus that appeals across divides is something that will set him apart as Prime Minister.”

He thinks that as he goes from making to answering questions in PMQs people will notice the difference. “One of Keirs’ distinguishing features is he knows the details and the facts, and he believes in openness and accountability, so he will want to respond to questions seriously and sensibly, and he will know what he’s talking about. You’ll get proper answers and explanations.”

If his premiership coincides with a Trump presidency too, “he will deal with that in a totally appropriate professional and diplomatic manner, understanding the relationship between the UK and the US is central to UK national security and prosperity. He will do everything he can to forget international alliances with America, but also with other partners,” he says.

Patrick adds: “I think that the more that people understand Keir, and what he actually brings to organisations, and therefore as Prime Minister to the country people will be optimistic about the future.

“My hopes are that we have a period of stability where politics becomes less exhausting for the everyday man and woman, when we stop having confected arguments about culture wars and we focus on the serious issues of economic growth, crime and justice. I’ve no doubt that this is what Keir Starmer can deliver.”