Labour leader Keir Starmer has been married to his wife Victoria for over 16 years, but she’s rarely seen in public and has chosen to keep a low profile
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been wed to his wife Victoria for more than 16 years, yet she seldom makes public appearances alongside the Labour leader.
Today, however, marks an exception.
The couple arrived hand in hand at Labour’s party conference at the ACC in Liverpool on Tuesday, September 30.
Starmer, 63, who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s senior team, stepped into the spotlight in 2020, though his partner has opted to remain largely away from public attention.
In an interview, Starmer revealed how Victoria discusses ideas on improving the nation with him – but wishes to safeguard her privacy.
“She’s a streetwise grounded, brilliant, gorgeous woman who wants as far as she can to get on with her own life and to protect it,” he told the Sunday Mirror.
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“She loves working for the NHS. She loves the team that she’s working with. And she and I are doing our best to raise two happy and confident children and that matters hugely to us.”
Much like her husband, Victoria is a qualified solicitor who currently works in the NHS as an occupational health worker.
The couple wed in 2007 – the year before Starmer became Director of Public Prosecutions – and share two children, a son called Tony and a daughter whose name was not made public. The couple first crossed paths in the early 2000s while working as lawyers, with Victoria tasked with providing Keir with documents for a case he was handling.
However, her initial impression of the now Labour leader was far from favourable.
Starmer’s unofficial biographer Nigel Cawthorne, author of ‘Keir Starmer: A Life of Contrasts’, recounts: “He rang her and, having never spoken to her before, queried whether the brief she had sent him was less than ‘100 percent accurate’.”
Unruffled, Victoria stood her ground against the caller on the other end of the line, assuring him that she was competent at her job. After hanging up, she reportedly exclaimed, “Who the f*** does he think he is?”
Starmer also reminisced about their first interaction during an appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories in 2020, explaining: “I was doing a case in court and it all depended on whether the documents were accurate. I [asked the team] who actually drew up these documents, they said a woman called Victoria, so I said let’s get her on the line.”
He went on to reveal how he ended up hearing her final remark. “She said, ‘Who the bleep does he think he is?’, then put the phone down on me. And quite right too.”
For their first date, Starmer reportedly took Victoria to the Lord Stanley pub in Camden, where they now live in a £1.75 million townhouse in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency.
Victoria, who was raised in the nearby Gospel Oak area, comes from a Polish family with Jewish roots.
Despite being an atheist, Starmer has shared that his children are raised in the faith. During a chat on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he disclosed: “It is perfectly true that my wife’s father is Jewish – they came from Poland – and my wife’s mother converted when they got married. There is a long tradition of family and faith there. We observe some of the practices, for example, Friday night prayers”.
According to a Labour insider, Victoria pursues her own interests. “She’s quite sassy in that she’s quite unbothered by what he’s doing,” a source previously revealed to the Telegraph.
“If he ever gets into Downing Street, she’s going to be very much leading her own life. She’s not going to be in the spotlight like Cherie Blair, but more of a background Sarah Brown-type figure.
“They have a great dynamic – she spends quite a lot of time taking the mickey out of him because he can be so serious. I’ve never known her to be particularly political – she’s always had her own interests.”
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