00:00It is the honour and the privilege of my life to be elected as leader of the Labour Party.
00:08After Britain's Labour Party lost the 2019 general election, Keir Starmer was elected
00:12leader promising to continue the left-wing policies of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
00:18But these were swiftly abandoned.
00:20And after accusations of anti-Semitism, Corbyn himself was expelled from the party.
00:25If you're anti-Semitic, you shouldn't be in the Labour Party.
00:29It's as simple as that.
00:32Supporters see Starmer's move towards the centre as pragmatic and believe without it,
00:37Labour would still be unelectable after 14 years in opposition.
00:41But critics question what Starmer's guiding principles really are.
00:45Born to working-class parents and growing up in a Conservative voting town near London,
00:50Starmer was named after Keir Hardie, a founding father of the Labour Party.
00:55He was shaped by his mother's struggle with a rare autoimmune disease that left her disabled.
01:00I think he learned that anyone could be struck down by misfortune in life and that they needed
01:04the help of the state in order to help them through the crisis.
01:09I think that means that he sees the state as an enabler and something that should be
01:14there as a safety net for people.
01:16And if that requires some redistribution, then so be it.
01:20After university, he joined a law firm specialising in human rights cases.
01:25He defended foreign death row inmates and became known for cases such as the McLibel trial,
01:29defending critics of the McDonald's burger chain.
01:33In 2003, he took a government job, ensuring police in Northern Ireland complied with human
01:38rights law.
01:39And in 2008, he was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions.
01:44Former colleague Gavin Miller explains why Starmer went from championing underdogs to
01:48running the system.
01:50Ultimately, if you can use those skills, that knowledge, that experience within the
01:54system to protect them, it's much better than standing outside and railing at the system
02:01from the outside.
02:03You can probably achieve much more doing that.
02:05Moving into politics, he became a Labour MP, quickly rising up the ranks to shadow Brexit
02:10minister.
02:12But there was always doubt about his support for the hard-left policies of leader Jeremy
02:16Corbyn, and in a recent interview, he said he only campaigned for Corbyn in the 2019
02:20election because he knew he wouldn't win.
02:24Since taking over as leader, he's moved the party rightwards, with members of the left
02:28wing of the party protesting at keynote speeches.
02:36Far ahead in the polls, Labour have run a guarded election campaign, happy to let Rishi
02:40Sunak's Conservatives make their own missteps.
02:44But this has left some doubts about how Starmer would actually govern.
02:47I think we'll only see the real Keir Starmer once he gets into Downing Street.
02:50Clearly he hasn't made too many promises and not inflated expectations in order to try
02:56and win the election.
02:58The party has made some bold pledges, such as to re-nationalise the railways and set
03:03up an energy company to invest in green power.
03:06But Labour have promised to stick to Conservative Party spending plans until growth returns.
03:11If he does get into 10 Downing Street, Keir Starmer will face strict self-imposed limits
03:16on how much he can spend to transform Britain.
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