Meet Victoria Starmer, Keir’s wife and most trusted adviser

But the elimination van might be arriving in below a month now. A pal stated: “They won’t be doing a Tony and Cherie, Vic won’t open her door to the press on July 5 unprepared in her nightdress, but they also won’t be clustered outside No 10, Keir with a mug in his hand, his family smiling adoringly up at him. Victoria will stand by her man, the kids will use the back door.”

Victoria, or Vic to her husband, doesn’t need the household to turn out to be the main target of celebrations and even for her kids to be named. While their son is excited by politics, their 13-year-old daughter has made it very clear she is reluctant to maneuver away from her pals. The household are stable north London, Starmer’s pockets even has “Take Me Home to Kentish Town” written on the again. His wife can stroll to her work as an occupational therapist on the hospital, pop into Sainsbury’s for teabags, have a espresso with a girlfriend, go to the native pub along with her husband and choose up a takeaway with out scrutiny; the kids go to native faculties.

She has been glad to don a purple gown for the Labour Party conferences for the previous few years, and gown up in white tie for the odd state banquet, however she doesn’t need to be an American-style first girl. The nation won’t be getting two for the value of 1.

However, if Starmer turns into prime minister, Lady Starmer, as she doesn’t prefer to be identified, must play hostess sometimes, greeting overseas leaders’ spouses and holding charity occasions whereas being scrutinised like the present occupant, Akshata Murty, if she wears fluffy slides to take out the bins.

This week Cherie Blair gave her some recommendation: “Some people will dislike you not for anything you do but because of what you represent. The most important thing is to be true to yourself.”

So who’s Victoria (née Alexander)? According to Tom Baldwin, who has written Keir Starmer, the most detailed new biography of the Labour chief, she’s an area woman, who was born and raised along with her sister Judith in her husband’s Holborn & St Pancras constituency the place her mom was a group physician. The women attended Gospel Oak main faculty, the place her sister later taught, and Victoria went onto the non-public day faculty Channing in Highgate.

At Cardiff University she studied legislation and sociology earlier than changing into president of the scholars’ union, following within the footsteps of Neil Kinnock 30 years earlier than. But she by no means needed to enter politics regardless of being concerned with the Labour Party years earlier than her future husband.

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When she certified as a solicitor, she specialised in avenue crime first and then fraud instances. “She is not Bridget Jones, she’s much brighter, cooler and sharper,” a girlfriend explains. Their rom-com second got here in 2006 when Starmer, then a senior barrister, rang to grill the solicitor on the accuracy of her paperwork. Before he hung up, he stated, “I overheard Vic saying to a colleague, ‘who the f*** does he think he is?’”

He admits it wasn’t the perfect of begins. She forgave him once they met at a authorized dinner a number of weeks later and she shared her vegetarian meal with him. Their first date was on the Lord Stanley pub in Camden close to the place they now dwell. “At least he walked me to the bus stop afterwards and waved at me when he left,” she joked.

He requested her to be his wife whereas on vacation in Greece. “Won’t we need a ring Keir?” was her sensible response. They married surrounded by 200 pals on the Fennes property in Essex. They had been photographed along with his mother and father Rod and Jo, who was in a wheelchair as a consequence of Still’s illness. They each adored their “feisty” new daughter-in-law, a cousin stated. “But the idea she is a shrinking violet is bollocks.”

She knew he was formidable, encouraging him to turn out to be director of public prosecutions, however when he stood down she stored placing circles spherical authorized appointments. “She saw him continuing in law rather than becoming a politician, not because they are interested in money but because she knew it would disrupt all their lives,” stated a household pal.

While he turned the native MP in 2015, she turned a governor at her kids’s faculty. They have virtually no movie star acquaintances besides George and Amal Clooney and few political pals. She doesn’t like advisers in the home, so Morgan McSweeney, the marketing campaign supervisor, is unlikely to be popping as much as the Downing Street flat for a drink on the finish of every day in the event that they win.

“She won’t need a blow dry every morning or a personal dresser,” stated one mom on the college run. “Her style is very much cool north London mum: dark skinny jeans, suede ankle boots, silk shirts, simple jewellery, faux leather, lots of black; red of course, burgundy, coral, a bit of purple and oversized shades, nothing floral or mustard. She’s never gone for the boho prairie look.” Although she did put on a yellow coat to the polling cubicles in 2019.

Lady Starmer loves her function in occupational well being. “She is determined to keep working, her job keeps her sane,” a colleague stated. It additionally helps to tell her husband in regards to the NHS. During the pandemic, they each stood on the doorstep to clap: she was a full-time frontline employee. But she is there for him on the essential moments. When he was glitter-bombed on the Labour Party convention final 12 months, he instructed ITV’s Robert Peston: “I looked at my wife, Vic, who knew I was going to get on with that speech.”

Lady Starmer isn’t concerned in day-to-day points, however she is the one he rings earlier than making a last huge choice. Her husband, who trusts virtually nobody in politics and the media, talks by means of concepts along with her on tips on how to enhance the nation. “She’s a streetwise, grounded, brilliant, gorgeous woman who wants as far as she can to get on with her own life and protect it,” he instructed the Sunday Mirror. She soothes over among the broken fragile egos and mends the fractured relationships that may occur in politics. “If aides really need to get through to Keir urgently they ask her to have a word,” one adviser stated.

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Her household are Jewish, initially from Poland; she has visited the village close to Kolo which they fled earlier than the Second World War. “My wife’s father is Jewish and my wife’s mother converted when they got married. We observe some of the practices, for example Friday night prayers,” Starmer instructed The Jewish Chronicle. She is a member of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood. Recently, pals stated, she “felt intimidated” by pro-Palestinian protesters exterior their household house when she returned from procuring who had been calling for the Labour chief to cease the UK sending arms to Israel. Her kids have had a troublesome time at their faculties over the Israel-Hamas battle and Starmer worries about additional social media abuse.

Victoria’s mom’s dying 4 years in the past after a freak accident actually shook the household, and Starmer suspended campaigning for the management. He instructed Rachel Sylvester and me in an interview for our podcast, What I Wish I’d Known, that it was more durable coping along with his wife’s grief than his personal mother and father’ deaths. They go to her memorial stone recurrently.

While Starmer is obsessed along with his beloved Gunners and is decided to maintain taking part in soccer even when he turns into prime minister, his wife’s ardour is horse racing. Her mom was from Yorkshire, they’ve an image of Doncaster Racecourse on their wall and they’ve been to the Derby collectively. They have additionally been to the royal field at Wimbledon as soon as, the day Boris Johnson resigned, however they seemed subdued. They usually tend to be on the Euros cheering for England this summer time.

Music and meals are different shared passions. Victoria and her daughter are vegetarians, Keir is a pescatarian although his daughter recurrently makes him take the fish out of the procuring basket; their son eats meat. Keir cooks difficult recipes on Saturday nights, utilizing each saucepan, she stacks the dishwasher. “She is far better at it than I am,” he has stated. If they’re wise they may make use of the Downing Street canteen, although not Lord Cameron’s favorite bacon butties. Redecorating the flat won’t be excessive on their record of priorities.

If Starmer wins on July 4, they may slowly begin packing. Chequers hasn’t been factored into their lives but, they usually go for summer time holidays in South Wales with pals, however not like Cameron and Johnson they don’t pine after their very own stately house for weekends.

Starmer can take himself fairly critically, she is extra all the way down to earth and jokes. “They [my family] rib me relentlessly and they laugh at me which is great. I’m Dad and that’s it,” he instructed Vogue journal just lately. “Vic has over the years reduced my impatience, but anybody who has been in a traffic jam with me will know that she hasn’t completed the task yet.”

If he turns into prime minister, he could have six outriders guaranteeing the visitors flows easily round him, so his cavalcade is unlikely to be carved up by any white vans. Tony Blair hasn’t pushed his personal automobile since 1997. But with Starmer’s impatience at politics already seen, Victoria’s calming function could also be necessary to all of us over the approaching years.