A cheap trick of opinion pollsters is to ask focus groups of voters to guess the favourite drink of a political leader. In the case of Sir Keir Starmer, respondents sometimes wrongly assume that his tipple has to be a gin and tonic when he is actually far more fond of a pint of real ale. Some voters are even under the misapprehension that his background is so posh that the knighthood is hereditary.
As Tom Baldwin points out in this highly informative, illuminating and insightful biography, this is one of the many paradoxes about his subject. Though often caricatured, by opponents to both left and right, as a well-heeled lawyer from north London, he has a more working-class background than any Labour leader for a generation.
