Keir Starmer, a leading human rights lawyer, was voted as the new Prime Minister of Britain on Friday. With promises of setting Britain on a new 'reset' and his party, the Labour Party's relations with the Indian diaspora, he has already spoken of a 'fresh strategic partnership' with India, which could include a possible free trade agreement if his party commanded a strong mandate.
Under his leadership, Labour managed a landslide win in the UK general election. At 61, Starmer will become the next premier, making a hopeful declaration that "change starts today" in a victory rally. He is credited with making a remarkable revival for Labour after a brutal defeat last December. One of the key areas he has focused on is to repair those relations with British Indians, which had gone sour in the last four and half years of Jeremy Corbyn leadership over his supposed anti-India stance on Kashmir.
"This is the People's Labour Party," he said in his victory speech, "This party is going through a transformation for four and a half years now. This is the reason: the Labour Party of today is very much a changed party. A Labour Party ready to serve our country, a Labour Party on the brink of running Britain in the interests of the working people.".
According to his position as prime minister, Labour's position on India, as articulated by Keir Starmer, is spelled out in the 2024 election manifesto, which reads "new strategic partnership with India, encompassing a free trade agreement, and deepening collaboration in areas such as security, education, technology, and climate change."
"I have a clear message today for all of you: this Labour Party has changed," he declared before the India Global Forum (IGF), setting the tone for what last year would be the party's approach to India-UK relations.
"My Labour government's aspiration for relations with India is based on values of democracy and ambition that we share. We will work to make that free trade agreement a reality; share that ambition with a new strategic partnership addressing global security, climate stability, and economic resilience," he said.
On the campaign trail, he was at the Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury, north London, promising British Hindus that the party would work to deal with Hinduphobia. This assurance has been an unwavering theme in attending Diwali and Holi celebrations over the past several years, putting Labour as prepared for government after 14 years in opposition.
Starmer, a former knighted legal charity and criminal justice campaigner by the late Queen Elizabeth II, spent a big part of his career in law before entering into politics by being elected as the Labour's Member of Parliament from London in 2015. Married with two teenagers, Starmer and his wife Victoria, a worker on the National Health Service, managed to keep their two children out of the political limelight. In his winning speech, he said the change promised would have to start this second.
Born in London, his father was a toolmaker and his mother an NHS nurse, and he grew up alongside his siblings in Oxted, Surrey. He has frequently become emotional when speaking about his mother, Josephine, who had Still's disease and died shortly before he became an MP in 2015. Starmer believes he inherited his mother's resilience and his father Rodney's strong work ethic, which goes a long way to inform his vision of honoring hardworking people.
In the televised debates, Starmer was often upstaged by the debating style of the charismatic Rishi Sunak and was at times chided for coming off as lackluster.
But, like Sunak, Starmer is also an alumnus of the University of Oxford, graduating in law, and later serving as the director of public prosecutions in governments held by the Labour Party. He often draws on this experience as chief former prosecutor to make a very practical point about dealing with criminal organizations.
As the new Member of Parliament in 2016, Starmer, who was openly anti-Brexit, took the very important role of the Shadow Secretary for Exiting the European Union to be a member of Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet, voicing out what he said was the "future of the Labour Party". Following the dismay of the results of the general election in 2019, he took over as leader of the opposition, outlining to distance himself and the party from previous positions he thought were unviable, hence Labour this time around presented a fully-costed manifesto to the public on things to do with house-building and economic growth as well as reform and changes in NHS.
On foreign policy matters, there will most likely be credibility because Labour has long been aligned with the Tory stance on Ukraine vis-à-vis their conflict with Russia. However, on the Israel-Gaza conflict, the changes would be that it would stop sales of arms to Israel and lean towards the recognition of the state of Palestine.
Broadly, Starmer's vision for the UK resonates that of a leader who wants to set right what he sees as the wreckage brought about by the "chaos" of a Conservative Party so divided and with its leadership changed so many times over the years.
"If you want changes in your life, you have to believe in it and vote for it" in a nutshell is the theme and message of his general election campaign.
"And now we can look forward, step into the morning, the dawn of hope, a little light at first, rising with the sun, once again shining on a nation with the chance, after 14 long years, to redeem its future," he said after his landslide victory.
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