‘He put his arms around me and said sorry about how I was treated'

MÁIRÍA CAHILL, Sunday Independent, July 7th, 2024

Keir Starmer was compassionate and decent during a review of North's prosecution service

The political satire show Spitting Image famously portrayed former British prime minister John Major's pea-eating puppet as grey and dull. So far, its Keir Starmer character is scrupulously polite.

Once, it dressed his puppet in a fox outfit, telling a street burglar that he was there to find a "pragmatic shared solution” to the pressing and dangerous issue in front of him. It was a hilarious side swipe, a satirising criticism that he's not the most passionate man in politics.

Starmer is now having the last laugh. It's a long way from the East Surrey Young Socialists to prime minister. What a spectacular journey. Few expected when he took the reins of a beleaguered Labour after ousting Jeremy Corbyn that he would romp to victory with 412 seats.

If Starmer is seen as privileged now, his childhood was anything but. Money was tight in the three-bedroomed house shared with his NHS nurse mother, Jo, who suffered from Still's disease, his toolmaker father, Rod, his three siblings and four dogs. He once kicked a football through the back window of his childhood home and, as the family couldn't afford to replace the glass, his father simply boarded it up. His friends remember exposed patches of wall where plaster should have been.

This revelatory detail is explained in Tom Baldwin's biography of Starmer, which affords us an insight into the former British director of public prosecutions who entered politics relatively late in his 50s and remains an enigma to most.

The crumbling house stories provide an excellent metaphor for how Starmer will tackle his premiership. Brexit shook Britain's foundations. So far the Tories, who caused the mess in the first place, have been plastering over the cracks.

Starmer is going to have to provide stability, strip it and start (to borrow that awful slogan) building back better.

The Tories have all but gutted the NHS. Pre-Covid, 4.39 million British people were awaiting consultant-led care. It's now 6.33 million. In Northern Ireland, some will wait more than six years on a first appointment for rheumatology. Teacher strikes for July are cancelled but a queue of public services will soon form at No. 10 Downing Street's door. Starmer is going to have to juggle his party's predisposed favouritism of union politics with his responsibility to the state.

He's more than capable. I have experienced his professionalism first hand. In 2015 he, along with barrister Katie O'Byrne, led a six-month review into the North's Public Prosecution Service (PPS)regarding its handling of cases in which I was a victim. He was without ego, making it clear to my solicitor from the outset that he should stop calling him "Sir”. I referred to him as Keir.

Unlike others in the legal profession who like to flaunt their status, he listened to me as an equal. He was at pains to stress his review would be independent. It was.

When Starmer explained his findings (which vindicated me and were critical of the PPS) to my legal team and I shortly before these were released to the press, I crumpled and cried. He stood, put his arms around me and told me he was sorry I had been treated as I had been. That act of compassion is far removed from those who say he lacks emotiveness.

His decency shone through. His beloved mother died during the review. Rather than rearrange an appointment with me, he flew to Northern Ireland. I was both horrified he hadn't put himself first and humbled that he kept his word.

When I learned he was going to run for the Labour Party as we walked into the corridor with my solicitor, I joked with him: "You never know, you could end up running the country someday.” And here we are.

It won't be easy. Aside from all the public service problems assuaging Britain, its presence on an unstable world stage has diminished and a carousel of successive Tory prime ministers has made its relations with Ireland caustic.

Starmer will also have to deal with clamouring calls for a Border poll, with potential to destabilise things further. Don't expect him to acquiesce. Starmer knows Ireland and stated last year in Belfast; "I was in love with this island and that love has stayed with me.”

He was human rights adviser to Northern Ireland's policing board from 2003 to 2007. His team includes Macroom's Morgan McSweeney, Pat McFadden, whose parents hail from Cloughaneely, and the most powerful woman in Britain, Labour's chief of staff Sue Gray, who once ran a Newry pub and was permanent secretary to Stormont's Department of Finance.

Sinn Féin's economy minister, Conor Murphy, told the media last month he thought she would be a "friend in court”.

We shall see.

Given Starmer is uncontroversial, the worst thing that we can say about him is he is an Arsenal supporter. He's not going to rock Britain's (or Ireland's) boat any time soon. But he will prove a safe, efficient and pragmatic pair of hands. Given recent history, isn't that a good thing?