The Starmer Project A Journey to the Right

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.

Oliver Eagleton is an Assistant Editor at New Left Review and Sidecar. He writes on culture and politics for the Guardian, TLS, Literary Review and Novara.