JULY 13 — "If you are going to do something, do it properly. Don’t do anything just for the sake of it. It must make a difference,” said the newly elected British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer as he cracked the whip, at his first cabinet meeting last Saturday.

Starmer had chosen his cabinet precisely based on their talents, performance, standards and delivery of the job to handle the deep public frustrations of the last 14 years where the British economy had struggled to grow.

"I will be chairing most boards to make sure everything is a priority in my government. We will work tirelessly to give people back a belief in Change,” he promised, barely before the electoral dust had even settled.

The major formidable tasks at hand are addressing the poorest and the most vulnerable, the broken National Health Service, the need to renationalise British railways and the overcrowded prisons that are bursting at the seams.

Most importantly, Starmer has begun to look at an ‘improved agreement with the European Union on post-Brexit trading rules to revamp the botched deal’ signed by former premier Boris Johnson.

Unfavourable to Starmer was that he was a relatively unknown candidate during the British Elections on July 4th where the voter turnout was below 60 per cent, the second lowest since 1885.

Undoubtedly, all over the world there is a trend of declining faith in mainstream politics.

A Polling from Ipsos recorded that 44 per cent of the voters were more aware of Larry the Cat residing in 10, Downing Street, as opposed to Starmer who made it to only 34 per cent. Ironically Larry has been the only resident of stability in Downing Street, while five PMs have come and gone, in the last 14 years.

Against all odds, Keir Starmer’s first speech as PM, was a well-crafted promise to deliver all his campaign pledges and gave hope for a new administration of competence and commitment.

"Self-interest is yesterday’s politics. You should focus on resolving real issues and have no selfish agendas. Change is what we need now,” he said.

Change is what we are looking for, in an alternate reality, where a "convicted” Donald Trump, and the "maverick” Joe Biden are in the presidential race of the USA.

Trump who has no ideological justification for his plans and Joe Biden who doesn’t think "anyone else is more qualified than him” have both outraged the public as two self-vested contestants who are blind-sided by their self-interests.

In this context, Keir Starmer a compassionate human being, who speaks in a language of moral absolutes is indeed a breath of fresh air

Starmer’s own accomplishments will possibly be a barometer to gauge on how committed he could be in changing the destiny of the nation. In spite of being the poorest of the poor he has managed to control his own destiny with definitive direction and hard work.

Here, it would be insightful to read his biography, Keir Starmer by Tom Baldwin which reveals how Starmer’s remarkable resistance to poverty has shaped his ideology, core principles and guided him into politics.

Keir and his three siblings grew up in a cramped, ramshackle pebble-dashed small house in Hurst Green, in the outskirts of Surrey. He shared a tiny room with his brother, which had a bunk bed and two small desks to study.

The household bills were not always paid, the telephone was cut off and the family home was so broken that it was known as a ‘house under construction’ during all of Starmer’s childhood years.

To quote Baldwin, "The family did not have television for a long time. One of the reasons the young Starmer played football during every break and lunchtime was to avoid the conversations his schoolmates were having about the TV programmes he hadn’t watched.”

The father, Rodney Starmer, was a toolmaker who would work for a stretch of 14 hours a day with an hour break for tea. Once, when the window was broken, they could not afford to fix the glass and so the father just "boarded” it up.”

Be it winter or summer: Rodney wore the same clothes, a buttoned-up shirt sometimes cut off at the sleeves, baggy shorts, socks and sandals.

His late mother Josephine Starmer, a nurse, tirelessly worked round the clock to make ends meet, despite battling a debilitating condition, called Still’s disease, all her life.

In spite of her never ending pain, she was very influential in the formation of Keir Starmer’s ambitious character. In fact, she named him Keir after Keir Hardie, the first chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1906. Hardie campaigned for women’s suffrage and against the First World War until his death in 1915.

Today, true to his namesake, a record half of Starmer’s Cabinet is women -Rachel Reeves as the first female Chancellor of Exchequer, Angela Rayner as the deputy Prime Minister and Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary, to oversee immigration in the UK.

Starmer’s ascendency from school, university, the bar, parliament and Downing Street was not only about his biography but comes with a forward-thinking chess strategized vision.

Starmer graduated with a first-class law degree from Leeds University in Bachelor of Civil Laws (BCL) before gaining his postgraduate degree at Oxford University.

Being a star student, his education was fully state funded. Interestingly, two thirds of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet were privately educated while only one MP in Labour’s new cabinet had private education.

As a lawyer Starmer had the capacity to completely immerse himself in work oblivious of what was happening around him. During one of those moments, he was oblivious that a burglar had made off with the television set in his room.

Starmer was a human rights lawyer, the director of public prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales from 2008 to 2013.

He championed various causes on behalf of the underdogs which speaks volumes on his moral substance and core values. Working pro bono, Starmer was instrumental in overturning the mandatory death penalty in Uganda and saving the lives of 417 people.

Starmer assisted Helen Steel and David Morris who took on the US fast food giant in a lengthy David v Goliath battle groundbreaking McLibel v Mcdonalds (1997) case during the trial and appeal in the English Courts. He later represented Steel and Morris at the European Court against the UK government. The the case ended in 2005.

As a public prosecutor, he had handled the parliamentary expenses scandal, delivering the swingeing cuts demanded by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, the London Riots in 2011, He even turned around the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from a paper-based organisation to a digital one.

As a young barrister, Starmer devoted his energies to human rights’ cases, often on behalf of trade unions or against the police. He defended criminals sentenced to death in the Caribbean, where he is lionised by the legal establishment.

Starmer the barrister, the politician and leader is an earnest, diligent, meticulous operator, his competence and steely ambition have seen him rise fast in Labour politics.

"The UK is back playing a leading role on the world stage while resetting the UK’s relationship with Europe, "Starmer said at the conclusion of his first international summit as Prime Minister.

I do hope he will step in to make changes in this volatile present world with genuine commitment to be one of the prominent leaders of the world today.

After all British PM Sir Keir Starmer is the man of the moment.

If not him, who else?