Sir Keir Starmer was declared the leader of Britain's Labour Party, after his predecessor, the 70-year-old Jeremy Corbyn resigned following his party's crushing defeat in the December 2019 general elections, on Saturday, April 4.
Keir Starmer: the new leader of Britain's Labour Party
Starmer won the Labour leadership contest, by securing 56.2 percent of the votes and defeated the shadow cabinet member Rebecca Long-Bailey (27.6 percent) and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy (16.2 percent), Reuters reported. "It's the honor and privilege of my life to be elected as leader of the Labour Party," Starmer said in a video message.
"Under my leadership we will engage constructively with the government, not opposition for opposition's sake. Not scoring party political points or making impossible demands. But with the courage to support where that's the right thing to do," he added.
"But we will test the arguments that are put forward. We will shine a torch on critical issues and where we see mistakes or faltering government or things not happening as quickly as they should, we'll challenge that and call that out."
"Be in no doubt I understand the scale of the task, the gravity of the position that we're in. We've got a mountain to climb, but we will climb it, and I will do my utmost to reconnect us across the country, to re-engage with our communities and voters, to establish a coalition across our towns and our cities and our regions with all creeds and communities to speak for the whole of the country," he went on to say.
"Where that requires change, we will change. Where that requires us to rethink, we will rethink," he further added.
Who is Keir Starmer?
A former director of public prosecutions, Sir Starmer became the MP of Holborn and St Pancras in 2015. A part of Jeremy Corbyn's top team, Starmer served as his shadow Brexit secretary and was opposed to Britain leaving the European Union (EU).
He is seen as 'soft-left' as compared to Corbyn. His predecessor took to Twitter to congratulate him over his election. The 40-year-old Angela Rayner, who was Corbyn's shadow education secretary, was elected Labor's deputy leader, by securing 52.6 percent of the votes after defeating four other candidates.
