From our correspondent
LONDON – The unexpected image hangs on a board of yellow notes behind his desk. Judy, the secretary who organizes his schedule, holds out her arms almost apologetically. “I don’t know how it ended up there, but he must have put it there himself: he’s his absolute idol.” In the red and white jersey he wore for AjaxYoung Johan Cruyff smiles at Keir Starmer Every time he opens the door, he comes back from that The potential new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom He calls them his “triple-meal days.” Three breakfasts, three lunches, and often three dinners.

The last stop before returning to London to his Camden constituency headquarters was Hucknall, a small town in Nottinghamshire, at the foot of Labour's so-called Red Wall, the Labour lands. Midlands And the north of England, which collapsed in 2019 under the blows of Boris Johnson’s theatrical populism. “Lord Starmer, can you be home before 6pm?” one of the gunmen asked him late in the afternoon, as they played together on the local football pitch. “I don’t think so,” was the reply. “But thank God it’s not Friday yet.”

When things can go right, they will. Starmer's campaign seems to be undermining most of the clichés. Even the controversy today has turned in his favour for the thousandth time. During his usual morning radio broadcast, he insisted that he wanted to give his children a good time, as any parent would say. “So on Fridays, as usual, I won’t do anything work-related after 6pm, whatever that may be.” But the Conservatives have attacked with their heads: “He’s a deadline-setter,” “He’ll be a part-time prime minister.”

He also interferes. Rishi Sunakto point out that since he was in Downing Street It never goes out at 6 p.m., quite the opposite. A few hours pass, and suspicions of another Donald Duck campaign blunder spread among conservatives. But the mystery Victoria, the Reluctant First Ladyso obsessed with privacy that no one knows the names of the couple's children, isn't she Jewish? Oh.

as in FranceThe English election campaign also had its sub-theme.creeping antisemitism. And from Arsenal Season Ticket Holder In addition to being a minor fan of Ajax, the team from the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, Starmer never misses the opportunity to score another goal on the counterattack: “For some religions, Friday evening is an important moment. But the desire to be with my loved ones is also important.”

It is not true that Keir Starmer is just exploiting the dissolution of the Conservative Party.And in his small, also carefully chosen Camden office, in one of the few public housing projects in the neighborhood, his loyal aides say he has “all the cards in order.” Starting with working class originshe waved proudly, Despite his Oxford degree His residence in the wealthy Kentish Town area also makes him an example of the British upper class.

Born in 1962 in the suburbs of London to Rod, a toolmaker, and Josephine, a nurse on leave due to a serious illness. Both socialists, his parents named him Keir, which is Gaelic for “dark”, in honour of the Scottish miners' leader Keir Hardie. His father forbids him from watching TV. His reaction was to develop an obsession with football, which he now uses as a symbol for any subject. Only yesterday he was asked if he ever imagined becoming prime minister: “My four brothers couldn’t go to university. I was the first in the family to do so. There was always a voice in my head that said: People like you don’t become parliamentarians.”

Starmer the Obscure begins as a lawyer. It is in this capacity that he meets his colleague Vic, who in 1997 Volunteer for Tony Blair's campaign. I converted him to vegetarianism, not completely, and introduced him to the Jewish community in London. In 2019, when Becomes secretary of disastrous Labour Party accused of anti-SemitismThe general belief is that the man with the sweet face and the ever-so-sweet speech is a passing character. Kerr and Vic, who have repeatedly persuaded him not to give up, have other ideas. Starmer begins a kind of shock therapy. to praise Margaret Thatcher As a “shining example of public service.”

Addresses the issue of costs Environmental transformationtaboo on the left. And cancels any discussion about Brexiteven defined as “an opportunity for perfection.” The real revolution is to remove the elements that reek of anti-Semitism, starting with his predecessor. Jeremy CorbynSlowly, and not without contradictions, Labour is once again becoming a drinkable option for the middle class. The Conservatives do the rest. Starmer never backs down, but he is committed to projecting an image of solidity to a country fearful of its own decline.

Yesterday, at Hucknall, he was also asked how he would define himself. He thought about it for a moment. “I’m someone who, when I realise there’s a problem, I try to fix it. Many people think that emotion is about shouting and insulting. But for me, it’s about fixing things, making things better.” Immediately afterwards, Keir Starmer turned and kicked the ball with his left foot, as Cruyff often liked to do, into an empty net.