Sir Keir Starmer wants to be the UK’s next prime minister. But who is he, and what would he do if he had the top job?

FYI presenters Scarlett and Jeriah met with Sir Keir Starmer and asked him just that, and more! FYI is a collaboration between Sky Kids, Sky News, and First News.

Jeriah: “So, you’re the Leader of the Opposition, which means you’re the leader of the largest party that’s not in Government – the Labour Party. But what do you actually do?”

Sir Keir Starmer: “We’ve got two main jobs as the Opposition. The first is to oppose the Government. Everything they put forward, we test it, we argue about it, make sure they’re doing the right thing. And, if they’re not doing the right thing, we point it out. The other thing we do is to prepare for the next election in the hope that we will win and I’d become the prime minister in Government.”

Strikes

Sir Keir Starmer: “I think it’s really important that everyone has the right to go on strike because, if you don’t
have the right to go on strike, you don’t really have the ability to improve your pay and your conditions and your circumstances at work. Obviously, I don’t want people to be on strike, but the right to strike, the right to take action is very, very important.”

Going green

Sir Keir Starmer: “I’m a big believer in solar panels on schools. In the primary school where my children went, they had a big project to get solar panels on schools. But, I think we need to do much more than that because I think the climate crisis is going to be huge for our future.”

“We also need wind turbines in the sea, on land. We need to make sure that we’re not relying on oil and gas in the way we have done for a very long time.”

The cost of living

Mimi (FYI News Club member): “I live in a single-parent household and we are only ever one unexpected bill away from not being able to eat or stay warm. Mr Starmer, politicians like you talk about how to help families like mine, but what experience of poverty do you actually have?”

Sir Keir Starmer: “That’s a really good question. And, I don’t know whether you know much about me and how I grew up, but my dad was a toolmaker, so he worked in a factory and my mum was a nurse, but she was also sadly very ill, and she couldn’t work for very long. So, actually, we didn’t have a lot of money coming into our family. And, when we had a cost of living crisis, when I was about your age, we couldn’t pay the bills. We had to have our phone cut off.”

“We didn’t have mobiles, by the way. It was just the old-fashioned phone. So, I do actually know what it feels like to have to look at your bills every week, or every month, and make really difficult decisions about what you are going to spend your money on. That question reflects what a lot of families are feeling across the country.”

Refugees

Sir Keir Starmer: “In this country, we’ve always been very welcoming of refugees. Most recently, obviously, Afghanistan, where there have been a lot of people fleeing from the Taliban and, of course, now Ukraine, from where we’ve had many refugees. Some of the people fleeing Afghanistan were working with the British in Afghanistan, which is why they’re being targeted. So we should have safe passages for people to get here. Going across the Channel in a boat is not a safe route. And, behind that, we don’t allow those criminal gangs to exploit people, putting them in that awfully dangerous situation.”

Finally…

Mitchell (FYI News Club) member: “My brother thinks pineapple belongs on pizza. It’s disgusting! Do you like it?”

Sir Keir Starmer: “No, I do not have pineapple on pizza! But, just to give you a little glimpse into our family life, we have a rule on a Friday that, however busy I am, I’ll stop work and we’ll always have a night in with our boy who’s 14 and our girl who’s 12. And the big discussion is, because we always have a takeaway, what are we going to have? Pizza is always there. Our girl is always lobbying for pizza, but not pineapple for me!”

More of the interview can be seen on a special episode of BAFTA-winning FYI below.

If you wish to read more insightful pieces that could be discussed with your children, visit the Talking Points section of our website.

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