Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party and the new British Prime Minister, is described by many as a conscientious and managerial character, somewhat boring and without charm.
However, the Labor Party may have needed it to achieve a convincing victory after 14 turbulent years of Conservative rule.
For four years, Starmer was the opposition leader who dragged his social democratic party towards the political middle of the left, since it was previously led by Jeremy Corbyn.
He was born in 1963 in a working-class family. He is the son of a tool maker and a nurse who named him after Kir Hardy, the first leader of the Labor Party.
Despite growing up in a modest family that was often penniless, Starmer managed to go to university and study law at the universities of Leeds and Oxford, working on human rights before being appointed chief Crown prosecutor.
Representation of Croatia at the court in The Hague
After retiring from that position, Starmer was a member of the legal team that represented Croatia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a dispute with Serbia in a mutual lawsuit for genocide in the conflicts of the 90s.
The court rejected the mutual lawsuits - the verdict established that there was no genocide against Croats or Serbs in Croatia.
Although Starmer's team was unsuccessful, his participation had consequences that are relevant today, writes House (The House), a portal that deals with the British Parliament. Starmer's experience trying to prove that genocide took place in The Hague helped shape his response to the Gaza conflict, other lawyers say.
However, part of the deputies from the Labor Party, according to that portal, criticize Starmer for not reacting emotionally enough to the events in the Gaza Strip, where Israel's war against Hamas, which the USA and the EU consider a terrorist organization, caused a terrible humanitarian organization, while the Israeli forces were accused that they committed genocide.
Arsenal fan
Starmer's main message to voters was that a Labor government would bring change - reassuring, not terrifying.
"A vote for Labor is a vote for stability — economic and political," Starmer said after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an election on May 22.
While he was chief prosecutor for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013, Starmer was caricatured by his opponents as a "left-wing London barrister".
He was given the title of Sir for leading the Crown Prosecution Service, and his opponents among the Conservatives like to use that title to portray him as a member of the elite and out of touch with the common people.
Starmer, on the other hand, likes to emphasize his ordinariness and humble roots – unlike his predecessor Sunak, who is a former Goldman Sachs banker married to a billionaire's daughter.
He also loves football – he still plays futsal at weekends – and enjoys nothing more than watching Premier League Arsenal games with a pint in his local pub. He and his wife, Victoria, who works in healthcare, have two teenage children who they try to keep out of the public eye.
During the campaign, he talked about growing up in a home with no money.
"These were difficult times," he said in a speech at the start of the campaign. "I know what inflation out of control looks like, how the rising cost of living can scare you like the mailman coming down the lane: 'Is he going to bring another bill we can't afford?'"
"We opted for a phone bill because when the phone went off, it was always easiest without it," Starmer said.
His mother suffered from chronic Steele's disease and Starmer said hospital visits and helping with her care helped form his strong support for the state-funded National Health Service.
The takeover of the Labor Party
He entered politics in his 50s after representing Croatia at the Hague Tribunal and was elected to parliament in 2015. He often disagreed with previous leader Corbyn, a staunch socialist, and at one point left the top of the party over disagreements, but agreed to to be Labour's Brexit spokesman under Corbyn.
After Corbyn led Labor to election defeats in 2017 and 2019 when the party had its worst result since 1935, Labor chose Starmer to lead efforts to rebuild it.
His leadership has coincided with a turbulent period in which the UK has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, exited the European Union, suffered an economic shock from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and endured economic turmoil from Liz Truss' turbulent 49-day term as Prime Minister in 2022.
Starmer has imposed discipline on a party with a reputation for internal divisions, repudiated some of Corbyn's more openly socialist policies and apologized for anti-Semitism that an internal inquiry concluded had been allowed to fester under Corbyn.
He promised "a culture change in the Labor Party".
Starmer was a strong opponent of the decision to leave the European Union, although he now says a Labor government would not seek to overturn it.
Critics say it shows a lack of political principle. Supporters say it is pragmatic and respects the fact that British voters have little desire to revisit the divisive Brexit debate.
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