Keir Starmer: lawyer set to take UK’s Labour back to power

Keir Starmer: lawyer set to take UK’s Labour back to power
UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is an ex-human rights lawyer and public prosecutor who will have to focus his relentless work ethic and methodical mind to fixing the country. (AFP)
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Updated 05 July 2024
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Keir Starmer: lawyer set to take UK’s Labour back to power

Keir Starmer: lawyer set to take UK’s Labour back to power

LONDON: UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is an ex-human rights lawyer and public prosecutor who will have to focus his relentless work ethic and methodical mind to fixing the country.

If exit polls are confirmed, at 61, Starmer will be the oldest person to become British prime minister in almost half a century — and comes just nine years since he was first elected to parliament.

The married father-of-two is unlike most modern politicians: he had a long and distinguished career before becoming an MP and his views are rooted in pragmatism rather than ideology.

“We must return politics to service,” Starmer said repeatedly during the campaign, promising to put “country first, party second” following 14 chaotic years of Conservative rule under five different prime ministers.

That mantra chimes with supporters’ lauding of him as a managerial safe pair of hands who will approach life in Downing Street the same way he did his legal career: seriously and forensically.

Detractors, though, label him an uninspiring opportunist who regularly shifts position on an issue and who has failed to spell out a clear and defining vision for the country.

Football-mad Starmer, a devoted Arsenal fan, has struggled to shed his public image as buttoned-up and boring and only recently started to appear more at ease in the public spotlight.

Supporters admit that he fails to ooze the charisma of more flashy predecessors like Boris Johnson, but say that therein lies his appeal: a reassuring and strait-laced presence following the turbulent, self-serving years of Tory rule.

With his grey quiff and black-rimmed glasses — Starmer, named after Labour’s founding father Keir Hardie — is also the center-left party’s most working-class leader in decades.

“My dad was a toolmaker, my mum was a nurse,” he tells voters often, countering depictions by opponents that he is the epitome of a smug, liberal, London elite.

Starmer’s purging of left-wingers from his party highlights a ruthless side that has propelled him to Britain’s highest political office, but he is said to be funny in private and loyal to his friends.

He has pledged to maintain his habit of not working after 6:00 p.m. on a Friday to spend time with his wife Victoria, who works as an occupational therapist in the National Health Service, and their two teenage children, who he does not name in public.

“There’s something extraordinary in him still being quite normal,” Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin wrote in the Guardian.

Born on September 2, 1962, Keir Rodney Starmer was raised in a cramped, pebbledashed semi-detached house on the outskirts of London by a seriously ill mother and an emotionally distant father.

He had three siblings, one of whom had learning difficulties. His parents were animal lovers who rescued donkeys.

A talented musician, Starmer had violin lessons at school with Norman Cook, the former Housemartins bassist who became DJ Fatboy Slim.

After legal studies at the universities of Leeds and Oxford, Starmer turned his attention to leftist causes, defending trade unions, anti-McDonald’s activists and death row inmates abroad.

He is friends with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney from their time together at the same legal practice and once recounted a boozy lunch he had with her and her Hollywood actor husband George.

In 2003, he began moving toward the establishment, shocking colleagues and friends, first with a job ensuring police in Northern Ireland complied with human rights legislation.

Five years later, he was appointed director of public prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales when Labour’s Gordon Brown was prime minister.

Between 2008 and 2013, he oversaw the prosecution of MPs for abusing their expenses, journalists for phone-hacking, and young rioters involved in unrest across England.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, but rarely uses the prefix “Sir,” and in 2015 was elected as a member of parliament, representing a seat in left-leaning north London.

Just weeks before he was elected, his mother died of a rare disease of the joints that had left her unable to walk for many years.

Just a year after becoming an MP, Starmer joined a rebellion by Labour lawmakers over radical left-winger Jeremy Corbyn’s perceived lack of leadership during the EU referendum campaign.

It failed, and later that year he rejoined the top team as Labour’s Brexit spokesman, where he remained until succeeding Corbyn after he took the party to its worst defeat since 1935 in the last election five years ago.

Starmer moved the party back to the more electable center ground, purging Corbyn and rooting out anti-Semitism.

Dominic Grieve, who as Conservative attorney-general worked closely with Starmer as DPP, said he “inspires loyalty because he comes across as being so transparently decent and rational.”

“These are quite important features even if you disagree with a policy. And he comes across as man of moderation,” he told The Times.

Nevertheless, the left accuses him of betrayal for dropping a number of pledges he made during his successful leadership campaign, including the scrapping of university tuition fees.

But his successful strategic repositioning of Labour is indicative of a constant throughout his life: a drive to succeed.

“If you’re born without privilege, you don’t have time for messing around,” Starmer once said.

“You don’t walk around problems without fixing them, and you don’t surrender to the instincts of organizations that won’t face up to change.”


Russia vows response to latest Ukraine ATACMS strikes

Updated 10 sec ago
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Russia vows response to latest Ukraine ATACMS strikes

Russia vows response to latest Ukraine ATACMS strikes
Ukraine firing the long-range missiles into Russia for the first time last week prompted a furious reaction from Moscow
Russia’s defense ministry on Tuesday said Ukraine had carried out fresh strikes — on November 23 and 25 — using ATACMS

MOSCOW: Moscow’s military on Tuesday pledged a response to fresh Ukrainian air attacks inside Russia using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Ukraine firing the long-range missiles into Russia for the first time last week prompted a furious reaction from Moscow.
Russia’s defense ministry on Tuesday said Ukraine had carried out fresh strikes — on November 23 and 25 — using ATACMS.
“Retaliatory actions are being prepared,” it said in a post on Telegram, without elaborating.
The United States gave Ukraine permission to use the weapons to hit Russian territory earlier this month after months of requests from Kyiv.
In a rare admission, Russia said the fresh strikes had caused damage to military hardware and wounded some of its personnel on the ground.
A strike on the Kursk Vostochny air base wounded two servicemen, the defense ministry said, while a strike on an air defense battery damaged a radar system and also caused “casualties.”
It said three of the five missiles fired in the first strike were shot down, while seven of the eight used in the second were destroyed.
Moscow rarely provides such specific details on Ukrainian aerial attacks and almost never admits missiles have reached their intended target.
The defense ministry also posted photos of what it said were the missile fragments, showing large casings with English-language inscriptions on the side.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the images.
The strikes come with tensions having ratched up dramatically in the near three-year conflict over the last few weeks.
Putin last week signed a decree lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, days before launching the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile at Ukraine.

US Air Force in UK says a small number of drones spotted flying over bases in eastern England

US Air Force in UK says a small number of drones spotted flying over bases in eastern England
Updated 6 min 35 sec ago
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US Air Force in UK says a small number of drones spotted flying over bases in eastern England

US Air Force in UK says a small number of drones spotted flying over bases in eastern England
  • The Air Force hasn’t identified who is believed to be behind the incursions
  • Unspecified mitigation measures are underway

LONDON: The US Air Force says a number of small drones have been detected near three bases in eastern England that are used by American forces.
Tuesday’s ongoing incident comes just days after drones were spotted near RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell. They were actively monitored after they were seen in the vicinity of and over the three bases, US Air Forces Europe said in a statement on Sunday.
The Air Force hasn’t identified who is believed to be behind the incursions. Unspecified mitigation measures are underway.
Lakenheath is home to the 48th Fighter Wing, which the US Air Force describes as the foundation of its combat capability in Europe. Mildenhall hosts the 100th Air Refueling Wing, and Feltwell is a hub for housing, schools and other services.
Lakenheath, Mildenhall and Feltwell, located close to one another in the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, are Royal Air Force bases used primarily by the US Air Force


Death toll from Hindu-Muslim clashes sparked by mosque survey rises to six in India

Death toll from Hindu-Muslim clashes sparked by mosque survey rises to six in India
Updated 26 November 2024
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Death toll from Hindu-Muslim clashes sparked by mosque survey rises to six in India

Death toll from Hindu-Muslim clashes sparked by mosque survey rises to six in India
  • Street battles broke out in a bid to block a team of surveyors from the government from entering the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal
  • Hindu activist groups have laid claim to several mosques they say were built over Hindu temples during Muslim Mughal rule 

Lucknow, India: The death toll from violent protests in India sparked by a survey into whether a centuries-old mosque was built on a Hindu temple has risen to six, an official said Tuesday.
Around 20 police officers were also wounded during the violence on Sunday in Sambhal in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, district magistrate Chirag Goyal told AFP.
Street battles broke out in a bid to block a team of surveyors from the government’s Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from entering the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal.
The six Muslim men were killed by gunfire — with Goyal saying they were shot by fellow protesters.
“The six killed were caught in crossfire by rioters using homemade pistols,” he said. “The police only fired tear gas and rubber bullets.”
Two people were initially reported dead on Sunday, but more details emerged later, while others later died of their wounds.
Goyal said 25 people had been arrested following the violence.
Hindu activist groups have laid claim to several mosques they say were built over Hindu temples during the Muslim Mughal empire centuries ago.
The survey in Sambhal was ordered by a local court, after a petition from a Hindu priest this month claimed it was built on the site of a Hindu temple.
Within hours the court ordered a survey of the mosque, a decision protested by local Muslim residents.
The first survey was undertaken on November 19. A second survey four days later, which included taking photos and video of the mosque’s features, triggered the violence.
The hilltop Shahi Jama Masjid was built in 1526 during the rule of Mughal emperors Babur and Humayun, according to historians, with renovations during the 17th century.
Hindu nationalist activists were emboldened earlier this year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand new Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya, built on grounds once home to the centuries-old Babri mosque.
That mosque was torn down in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi’s party, sparking sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.
Some Hindu campaigners see an ideological patron in Modi.
Calls for India to more closely align the country’s officially secular political system with its majority Hindu faith have rapidly grown louder since Modi was swept to office in 2014.
It has made the country’s roughly 210-million-strong Muslim minority increasingly anxious about their future.


Philippines, UAE pledge stronger economic ties as Marcos marks first visit

Philippines, UAE pledge stronger economic ties as Marcos marks first visit
Updated 26 November 2024
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Philippines, UAE pledge stronger economic ties as Marcos marks first visit

Philippines, UAE pledge stronger economic ties as Marcos marks first visit
  • Marcos is the first Philippine president to visit Abu Dhabi in more than 15 years
  • UAE president says he looks forward to talks on a free trade deal with the Philippines

Manila: The Philippines and the UAE on Tuesday committed to boosting economic relations as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. marked his first official trip to Abu Dhabi.

On his one-day trip, Marcos was received by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

He is the first Philippine president to visit the UAE since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2008.

During the meeting, the two leaders committed “to deepening cooperation in various areas, including economy, trade and sustainability,” Marcos’ office said in a statement.

“The two leaders emphasized their dedication to strengthening bilateral ties and delivering lasting benefits to their peoples, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of friendship and collaboration between their nations.”

The Philippines and the UAE celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations on Aug. 19.

Emirati state news agency WAM cited Sheikh Mohammed as saying that he hoped the visit “would herald a new and significant chapter” in UAE-Philippine ties and that the UAE “looks forward to continuing discussions toward reaching a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the Philippines to elevate trade and investment relations to new heights of mutual economic growth.”

Negotiations on the free trade deal have been underway between Philippine and UAE officials since the beginning of this year.

The UAE is a key trading partner of the Philippines in the region and home to the second-largest Filipino diaspora after Saudi Arabia.

Some 700,000 overseas Filipino workers live and work in the UAE. Many are employed in the construction, healthcare and hospitality sectors.

Marcos was initially expected to meet representatives of the Filipino community, but his visit was shortened, with the Philippine Presidential Communications Office saying he would “immediately fly back to Manila to resume his personal supervision and inspection of the relief and reconstruction activities in communities devastated by six successive typhoons.”


India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust

India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust
Updated 26 November 2024
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India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust

India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust
  • Myanmar-flagged boat was seized when it entered Indian waters in the Andaman Sea
  • 70 percent of illegal drugs are nowadays smuggled into India via sea routes, expert says

NEW DELHI: India’s coast guard has seized a Myanmar vessel carrying 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in the Andaman Sea, marking its biggest haul of illegal drugs.

The Myanmar-flagged fishing boat Soe Wai Yan Htoo was spotted by an Indian Coast Guard reconnaissance air patrol in the Andaman Sea on Monday, as it was “operating in a suspicious manner,” the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Officers boarded the boat for investigation when it entered Indian territorial waters.

“The six crew onboard the boat were identified as Myanmarese nationals,” the ministry said. “During rummaging, the boarding party found approx. 5,500 kgs of prohibited drug methamphetamine.”

The vessel and its crew have been taken for further investigation to an Indian naval base in Sri Vijaya Puram, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

“The seizure is the largest-ever drug haul by the Indian Coast Guard in maritime history, highlighting the growing threat of transnational maritime narcotics,” the ICG said.

The trafficking of illicit drugs from Myanmar through the Andaman Sea has been on the rise as drug cartels try to evade land controls, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The UNODC identifies Myanmar’s Shan state as “the epicenter” of methamphetamine production in the region.

Shan state is part of the Golden Triangle — a mountainous area in the northern part of the Mekong River basin, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. The region has long been associated with illegal drug production and was a major source of opium in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, it has seen a shift toward the production of synthetic drugs.

“Myanmar’s political instability adds to this challenge since many insurgent groups operate between the border regions,” said Dr. Sreeparna Banerjee, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

She estimated that some 70 percent of illegal drugs smuggled into India currently enter the country through the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, with Monday’s haul raising concerns over the scale of criminal networks operating at sea.

“While this seizure highlights the success of coordinated operations by the ICG and other agencies, it also raises concerns about the gaps traffickers exploit. The use of unregistered vessels and vast stretches of unmonitored waters make the Andaman Sea a challenging zone for law enforcement,” Banerjee told Arab News.

“The size of the haul also indicates the potential involvement of transnational organized crime syndicates, further complicating efforts to dismantle these networks.”