Starmer lived over brothel with circular bed
SIR KEIR STARMER has been labelled “boring” so often by critics that he has sought to embrace the term, declaring earlier this year “if they are calling you boring, you’re winning”.
But now, thanks to a new biography, the public perception of the Labour leader could be about to change as focus falls on more colourful aspects of his past life. Accounts of the raucous parties Sir Keir and his flatmates used to throw in a dingy London apartment above a brothel are detailed in the new book, Keir Starmer: The Biography.
The property they lived in was found in Archway, north London. Sir Keir moved to the capital in the 1980s after graduating from Leeds University and Oxford University to pursue a career in law. Sir Keir is quoted in the book saying: “The flat was really grotty, but it was cheap, you know I was with mates, we were young and having a good time.”
Below the flat was a sauna and massage parlour. The landlord had been jailed after being found guilty of living off the earnings of prostitution, according to the book. A father of one of Sir Keir’s friends was said to be worried that he might be photographed going through the entrance to a brothel when he came to visit his son.
Sir Keir is quoted joking: “We didn’t have the kind of neighbours who would complain too much about the floors shaking or people arriving and leaving late at night.”
He also describes getting to know the names of the women working downstairs: “They would always shout hello and share a joke with us. They had tough lives and deserved to be treated with respect.” For two years the group got away without paying rent after the women disappeared unexpectedly.
All that was left was “a circular bed and a baby grand piano in the room downstairs”, according to the book.
The book is written by Tom Baldwin, the former Times political editor.
In the end the flat was condemned as unfit for human habitation and Sir Keir would go on to live in other rented houses in Brondesbury Park and Islington before settling in Kentish Town.
Features: Page 8