Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer speaks during a Labour Party general election campaign meeting in Harlow, England, November 5, 2019. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Congratulations to Keir Starmer, the stolid human-rights lawyer turned member of Parliament and shadow Brexit secretary in the Labour Party. This weekend, Starmer was elected the leader of the Labour Party, with 56 percent of the vote, appearing to lead the party back toward the center after the obliteration of Jeremy Corbyn, who led Labour to its most disastrous showing since 1935 in the Christmastime election.


Starmer, who is notably younger and handsomer than Corbyn, has been rumored to be the model for the humorless but noble and sexy human-rights lawyer, Mr. Darcy, played by Colin Firth in the film version of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Helen Fielding, who wrote the book on which the film was based, has been a bit coy on the matter.

Starmer seems certain to talk less nonsense than Corbyn. Upon his election, he said, “Under my leadership we will engage constructively with the government, not opposition for opposition’s sake. Not scoring party political points or making impossible demands. But with the courage to support where that’s the right thing to do.”