We’ve seen it all before. Internal party politics from Left to Right in the UK are notoriously fractious. In the case of British Labour policy, swings from a commitment to socialism through to ‘progressive capitalism’ have long shaped the 124-year-old party. The most recent politician to ride the opportunistic hobby horse is former leftwing lawyer Keir Starmer.
On the face of it Starmer would seem an unlikely candidate. As a young barrister he defended campaigners, famously offering pro bono legal advice to two environmental activists sued by McDonald’s. He even opposed the Iraq war. But something happened to move the 61-year-old from radical outsider to ambitious insider. There is a revealing quote from his days of involvement with Northern Ireland policing: ‘I came better to understand how you can [effect] change by being inside and getting the trust of people’.
