The Starmer Project

New, updated edition of a critically acclaimed political biography of the Labour Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. The Starmer Project is a forensic and revealing account of Keir Starmer's rise to the top of British politics. Oliver Eagleton paints a fascinating picture of a human-rights barrister turned chief prosecutor and his handling of a number of cases involving the police and security services. He traces Starmer's political alliances and his leading role in Labour's Brexit agony. When Starmer stood for party leader, he pledged to revitalise Corbynism with a dose of lawyerly competence. The Starmer Project details how he instead purged Jeremy Corbyn and pulled Labour to the right. Helped into power by the Conservatives' collapse in 2024, Starmer was soon as unpopular as his Tory predecessors. Embroiled in austerity and allegations of sleaze, he has further alienated the public and disappointed business interests as well. He stands accused by critics on the left and right alike of lacking principles. But although devoid of charisma, Starmer is anything but an empty political vessel. Indeed, the implications of his authoritarian politics for a country in need of renewal, not retrenchment, appear dire. This is the definitive, updated and revealing biography of the Labour Prime Minister.

Forensic political biography of the Labour Party leader Hailed as a human-rights champion and political outsider, what sort of politician is Keir Starmer really, and what mark is he making on the new politics of Labour? In The Starmer Project, Oliver Eagleton provides a careful reading of Starmer's record at the Crown Prosecution Service and as a member of Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet, tracing the political alliances he forged and the roots of his bid for the Party leadership. Starmer originally pledged to revitalise Corbynism with a dose of lawyerly competence. To understand what happened afterwards it is necessary to understand the man himself. So little remains known about Starmer that his actions are usually interpreted as overtures to others. On closer inspection, however, he is anything but an empty political vessel.