Stylish and sassy, Lady S has the star quality her husband badly needs
Denis Thatcher famously commented that the role of a politician’s consort was to be: “Always present, never there.” Yet by wowing the crowds in Brighton with her Labour Party Conference debut, Sir Keir Starmer’s glamorous wife, Victoria, yesterday added some much needed colour to an event which, like her husband, had been criticised for being too “beige” and “boring”.
Dressed in a £269 navy blue, eco-friendly polyester dress by French fashion house Claudie Pierlot, Lady Starmer enveloped her husband in a warm embrace following his keynote speech to fellow comrades.
For many Labour members – and indeed the wider public – it was a first chance to see the wife of the Leader of the Opposition in the flesh, and onlookers could not fail to be struck by her subtle blend of quiet confidence and North London working mother chic. The couple are fiercely private, and apart from clapping for carers last year, lighting a candle for Sarah Everard in March, a polling day appearance in May and attending the European football championships final in July, Lady Starmer has rarely been seen in public with her husband since he took up the red reins in April 2020.
So why has it taken this long for Sir Keir to unveil his secret weapon – and what kind of “first lady” might she prove to be?
Lady Starmer, a trained solicitor who now works in occupational health for the NHS, has always been a reluctant political spouse. So little is known about the fresh-faced mother of two, who married Sir Keir, 59, in 2007, the year before he became Director of Public Prosecutions, that even her precise age remains a mystery. Born Victoria Alexander, she first encountered the ambitious young QC in the early Noughties. It is fair to say she was, at the time, less than impressed.
According to Sir Keir’s unofficial biographer Nigel Cawthorne, author of Keir Starmer – A Life of Contrasts: “He rang her up and, having never spoken to her before, queried whether the brief she had sent him was less than ‘100 per cent accurate’.
“Unflustered, Victoria firmly held her ground, reassuring him that she knew her job, and, after putting the phone down, said, ‘Who the f--- does he think he is?’”
Yet after a successful first date at the Lord Stanley pub in Camden Park Road, where they dined on inexpensive pizzas, the rest, as they say, is history. Their son, Toby, was born in 2008; the name of their daughter, nine, has never been made public.
Seemingly channelling a Samcam/ Justine Miliband vibe with her sustainable outfit – teamed with a £129 Whistles Bibi-style handbag, £150 LK Bennett trainers and a £264 Georg Jensen silver pendant, it seems Lady Starmer is very much her own woman.
Naturally, as a political spouse, she has been painted by some quarters (largely the Corbynista hard-left) as a Lady Macbeth figure.
In reality, nothing could be further from the truth – as her main focus lies on family life in Camden, north London, where they live in a £1.75million town house – rather than ideological matters.
Brought up in nearby Gospel Oak, Lady Starmer’s family is Jewish, originally from Poland, and Sir Keir, an atheist, recently suggested that their children are being brought up in the faith. “Just carving out that tradition, that bit of faith on Friday, is incredibly important, because we get together and we do Zoom prayers now,” he said.
As one Labour insider put it: “She’s quite sassy in that she’s quite unbothered by what he’s doing. 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.”
Whether she likes it or not, as Sir Keir continues to position himself as a future prime minister, his wife could prove to be the star player in his arsenal.