Yahoo News Wednesday briefing: Can Keir Starmer hope to keep his family out of the spotlight?
Good morning. By this time on Friday we are likely to see the first images of Sir Keir Starmer moving into 10 Downing Street, but he’s unlikely to pose for a family portrait outside the famous black door as other prime ministers traditionally do.
In stark contrast to other wannabe leaders in the UK and across the world, Starmer has gone to great lengths to keep his family life separate from his public and political one. To the extent that many members of the public are unaware how many children he has, or what his wife’s name is (it’s Vic, short for Victoria). Several journalists have even published articles with her age wrong – by a decade.
The Conservatives have launched a social media campaign suggesting that Starmer would be “a part-time prime minister” (for which they have been heavily criticised), after he said he would “try” to “carve out really protected time for the kids” by finishing work at 6pm on Fridays.
Rishi Sunak thinks that’s impossible (“I haven’t finished at six ever,” he said yesterday) – and that attacking Starmer for wanting to spend time with his family might finally help him cut-through to voters. But will it? Have times changed, do the public want their leaders to show (and perhaps be) a bit more human?
For today’s newsletter Gaby Hinsliff – who has covered every PM since Blair – gives us her insights into how to be a leader of a country while juggling a family. That’s after the headlines.
Five big stories
General election 2024 | Keir Starmer has accused the Conservatives of desperate tactics amid claims that Tory criticism of his defence of family time was insensitive and had antisemitic undertones.
India | At least 116 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in a crowd crush at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India, and more than 80 others were injured, local police have said.
UK news | Lucy Letby has been found guilty of trying to kill a two-hour-old baby girl on the hospital ward where she murdered seven other infants. The former neonatal nurse, who is serving 14 whole-life prison terms, was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to murder the “extremely premature” infant after a retrial at Manchester crown court.
Ukraine | Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, an outspoken critic of western aid to Ukraine, has held talks with president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, after a surprise visit by Europe’s most pro-Russian leader to the Ukrainian capital. Elsewhere, a major poll of 15 European countries showed that a negotiated outcome with Russia, as opposed to an outright Ukrainian military victory, is now seen as the most likely end to the war.
Politics | A charity for visually impaired people, Devon in Sight, has accused Tory canvassers of “stooping to an all-time low” by allegedly suggesting that the Liberal Democrat candidate for Torbay, Steve Darling, is not actually blind. The comments were said to have been made by a Tory doorknocker calling at the house of an unnamed elderly couple in recent days.
In depth: ‘There has been a feeling that private life shouldn’t intrude on public duty, but that has changed’
I think we can take it as read that, by now, we all know what Starmer’s dad did for a living. Rodney Starmer was a tool maker. You might be less certain if asked to name Victoria Starmer’s job – she works in occupational health for the NHS (which Starmer has said gives him “a direct line of sight on a daily basis into the challenges of the NHS and the morale of the staff”).
So what do we know about the likely future prime minister’s wife? She joined Starmer on stage at the launch of Labour’s campaign, but has otherwise rarely been seen on the trail. One of the few photos of them together during the last six weeks was when they went to see Taylor Swift, telling reporters: “I know I will be asked what is my favourite song and I am not going to pretend I have got every album and know every song, although Change is the one for obvious reasons.”
And Starmer has said that if he’s elected, “she’s absolutely going to carry on working, she wants to and she loves it. It’s also good for me because it gives me an insight into the NHS.”
Gaby hopes that Victoria will be able to carry on with her life, career and privacy without her husband’s job getting in the way too much. “It’s 2024, I do not care who the PM is married to it shouldn’t matter,” she says. “We shouldn’t be talking about it; it only matters if there is a conflict of interest. I don’t take my husband to work, and I can’t think why anyone else should have to.”
The rightwing press have tried to turn her absence from the campaign trail into a talking point. “They’re trying to make it seem suspicious,” Gaby says. “No, she’s got a job and a kid doing GCSEs, there’s other stuff going on.” Despite this, there’s still an expectation, from some in the media, that “the wives of leaders should be doing interviews for women’s mags”.
“Grazia readers have moved on,” she says. “They expect to see female politicians interviewed in their own right and in their professional capacity. If a leader can’t find a way to make themselves relatable without a spouse, perhaps they shouldn’t be a leader. It was also sad that Theresa May felt she had to explain why she didn’t have children, and disappointing that Andrea Leadsom [who challenged May for the leadership in 2016] suggested that having children made her a better choice to be prime minister. We should have moved beyond all this.”
***
Letting kids be kids
Victoria, who is 50 despite some journalists repeatedly reporting that she is 60, is known to not be keen to move from their home in north London to Downing Street. Their two children, who have not been photographed in public and whose names have so far been kept out of the media entirely, have their doubts, too. But Starmer reckons he’s convinced them, although he might need to buy a dog to seal the deal.
“They are worried, if I’m honest,” he told ITV’s This Morning. “They are worried about it, because, I think any parent would understand this, if you are a teenage child you don’t want things to change.
“We’ve got a cat, a cat called Jojo, but my kids are on a campaign to get a dog. They’ll take any dog but a German shepherd is what our daughter wants.”
The Starmers are fiercely protective of their children’s privacy, which Gaby contrasts to that famous picture of Tony and Cherie Blair with their kids on the steps of Number 10 on the day of his first general election victory in 1997 (above).
“The degree to which they have kept their children out of [the spotlight] so far is impressive, and not something a PM has tried before,” Gaby says. “I really respect them for it, and wish them the best of luck trying to preserve it. But it is going to be difficult.”
Gaby has met many of our previous PMs’ and opposition leaders’ kids, and recalls an interview with Gordon Brown being repeatedly interrupted by “his boys running round the house in Scotland. And Blair [aged 43 when first elected PM in 1997] used his kids as a way of showing a changing of the guard, ‘Here I am a young family man’, compared to John Major [then 54].”
As far as Gaby is aware, the only journalist to meet Starmer’s kids has been his unofficial biographer, Tom Baldwin. “He describes being at home with them at breakfast time, with the kids and Vic being around, but that’s very controlled access, and obviously no cameras around,” she says. “Whereas Blair had cameras round filming the kids’ piano practice.”
There are likely to be two pressure points that could lead to the Starmer children losing their privacy, Gaby says. “One is if they do something newsworthy, a la Euan Blair getting drunk celebrating the end of his GCSE exams.” The eldest of Starmer’s children is in their GCSE year, but has hopefully been warned to not do that.
“The other is the temptation politicians have to bring the family out as a sort of defensive shield when things aren’t going well – ‘Look, I’m just like you, struggling with the same challenges’,” Gaby says. “From the efforts they have gone to so far, I don’t expect them [the Starmers] to do that.”
Rishi Sunak has mostly kept his children out of the public eye, but they have been seen at some events including a street party on Downing Street to celebrate the King’s coronation, and he posted a photo of them on Instagram during his bid for the Tory party leadership in 2022. He also described them as “the experts of [the climate crisis] in my household”.
***
An attack on private life
The Tory party machine has now launched an attack on Starmer as wanting to be only “a part-time prime minister” after he said he would try to finish work by 6pm on Fridays. It comes after Starmer told Virgin Radio on Monday: “We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after 6 o’clock, pretty well come what may. There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.”
Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, said yesterday that it was “unrealistic”. “I also think it’s a bit odd, because they’re also saying they want to make people in the NHS work overtime and at weekends, so I think to do that on one hand, and on the other hand say that you’re not going to work past 6pm is a bit tin-eared.”
Quite apart from the potentially antisemitic undertone to the attack (Victoria is of Jewish heritage and Starmer has spoken about having Friday night Shabbat dinner with his family every week), Gaby reckons the attacks could end up making the Tories “look ridiculous”. “They’re making it sound like if Russia invaded at 6:15pm, Starmer wouldn’t answer the phone.”
In the past, she says, the public may have expected their leaders to be Stakhanovites – when Blair had Leo, his fourth child, while in office in 2000, there was a huge debate about paternity leave, and in the end he took a grudging “week off”. At the time Blair said: “You’ve got to have some common sense about it – you want to spend more time with your baby, but you don’t give up the job.” But now being honest about juggling relatable challenges is probably an advantage.
“There has long been a feeling that private life shouldn’t intrude on your public duty,” says Gaby, “but that has changed. Now people want you to care, and you could lose support if you’re not looking like an involved parent.”
What else we’ve been reading
You can rely on Nigel Slater to know just what to do with a nice squash. Here’s his recipe for courgettes, butter beans and ’nduja, hearty but not too heavy for summer. Bon appétit. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters
Social media clips of standups doing crowd work are changing the way comedy works. Isobel Lewis asks a few comics whether a focus on off-the-cuff interactions aimed at creating viral moments diminishes the craft. Nimo
I’m obsessed with this piece, in which writer Julian Benson simulated different UK parties’ time in government in the game Democracy 4. Spoiler: things did not go well. Hannah
As someone who loves indulging in little treats every weekend, this article that tracks three writers as they embark on a no-spend challenge provided hope that maybe even I can cut down on unnecessary purchases. Nimo
Adrian Horton writes about why it’s the summer of age-gap romances on the big screen, with new films that are diversifying women’s stories (if not totally subverting cougar stereotypes). Hannah
Sport
Tennis | Britain’s female tennis stars have enjoyed a record-breaking start to Wimbledon, with five players through to the second round for the first time in 37 years. Katie Boulter, the British No 1, and Harriet Dart, 27, were triumphant in their first-round matches on Tuesday. Alex de Minaur could not be deflected by either rain showers or a determined compatriot as he began his assault on Wimbledon’s grass citadel with a straight sets victory. Novak Djokovic cruised into the second round at Wimbledon, downing Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva, and Jack Draper set up a second-round meeting with Cameron Norrie, the man he replaced as the nation’s top-ranked male player a fortnight ago, after a five-set win over qualifier Elias Ymer.
Football | The Netherlands reached its first European Championship quarter-final in 16 years with a 3-0 win over Romania on Tuesday. Merih Demiral has scored twice to send Turkey into the European Championship quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over Austria.
Chess | Bodhana Sivanandan, a nine-year-old chess prodigy from Harrow, is set to make history as the youngest person to represent England in international sporting competition. Sivanandan, who took up chess in lockdown, is one of five players chosen for England’s women’s team to play in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September.
The front pages
The Guardian headlines “Backlash over ‘antisemitic’ Tory attack on Starmer”, after the conservatives criticised his decision to try to preserve his Friday nights as family time. In the final day before polling – much of the papers are consumed with election headlines, but it’s a former prime minister that has made many of them. In the Mail “Boris and Rishi unite to stop Starmergeddon”, after Johnson made his first appearance of the campaign. The Times has “Johnson: Big Labour win is pregnant with horrors”, and in the Telegraph a more sedate “Johnson: It’s not too late to stop Labour”.
The Mirror has a full page picture of Keir Starmer with “14 years of hurt never stopped us dreaming …” as the paper reports on the Labour leader’s promises. The i says “Prisons crisis for new government on day one, with cells full and ‘one in, one out’ plan”, as the paper reports on an exclusive.
In the Financial Times, “Water groups face lawsuits after ruling on sewage release”, in the wake of a key judgment from the supreme court. And in the Sun, “Do you want some?”, covering footballer Andy Carroll who was allegedly caught up in a brawl.
Today in Focus
Marina Hyde and John Crace on the 2024 election campaign – podcast
Helen Pidd speaks to the Guardian columnist Marina Hyde and parliamentary sketch writer John Crace as they reflect on the highs and lows of the general election campaign.
Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
A bookstore in San Francisco has fought back against the rise in LGBTQ+ book bans in the US. During Pride month, Fabulosa Books allowed customers to buy titles that it then donated to queer organisations in conservative areas of the country.
The shop, which is in the city’s historic gay neighbourhood, the Castro, started its Books Not Bans programme last year. It was inspired by what its creator, Becka Robbins, describes as a “cinematic moment” she often observes in the store, when young people finally witness themselves reflected in literature.
“They should see this queer lit in their own libraries, in their classrooms, on their parents’ bookshelves. But they’re not,” says Robbins. Fabulosa has sent more than 700 books to states including Florida, Arkansas and Texas.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
