The biography of Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, is an excellent read for lawyers who are involved in politics and want to make change on a larger scale.

In 2019, I was a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats, standing on a platform of strongly opposing Brexit. During hustings, I was asked about how we might heal the divisions caused by the referendum and I proposed a government of unity led by Starmer. I hoped we would have a hung parliament to work toward that aim. That did not happen, but this biography convinces me that the country would be in a much better place now if he had become prime minister then.

Lawyers can change people’s lives for the better, and sometimes even literally save them. There are plenty of examples in this book that show how Starmer did this. From his outstanding work to end the death penalty in some Commonwealth countries, to his defence of environmental activists on a pro bono basis, he won many admirers among his legal colleagues. He also won a prestigious human rights lawyer award, about which he says: ‘I was feeling good about myself …’

When he was the director of public prosecutions, Starmer made many changes to the Crown Prosecution Service to bring criminals to justice and provide support to the victims. He took a pragmatic approach to unusual and/or difficult problems. He also brought compassion into his work and engaged with victims’ families. For example, he refused to prosecute the parents of Daniel James, a young rugby player who was paralysed from the chest down in a training accident, after they took him to Switzerland to grant him his wish of ending his life. He also engaged with Baroness Doreen Lawrence and decided to reopen her son’s murder case, which resulted in putting two of his killers behind bars.

However, it is in politics where change can be made on a greater scale and on reaching that decision, Starmer decided on a career move. ‘I saw the limit of legal justice,’ he says. ‘I wanted to move on from arguing about, interpreting and implementing the law, to being part of the parliament – and hopefully the government – that makes law. I had a sense that to fix problems you had to pull levers only politicians could do. I wanted to be part of making social justice.’

Starmer’s journey via a working-class upbringing (his father was a toolmaker and his mother a nurse) is extraordinary. He was the first in his family to go to university and became one of the country’s most successful human rights lawyers, and later its chief prosecutor. He is clearly a man who values his family, sacrificing socialising for being on ‘donkey duty’ to help look after the animals his parents adopted.

The book details Starmer’s political journey, disclosing how he considered resigning from the shadow cabinet because of the way that the Labour party was handling anti-Semitism issues. His response to ‘Beergate’, in which he stated that he would resign if the police fined him for breaking lockdown rules, showed him to be a man of principle. ‘It is about integrity,’ he said at the time. He also thought he might need to resign after the first by-election under his leadership, Hartlepool in 2021, in which the party lost its seat.

Starmer has completely transformed Labour, so that it is now trusted by voters on the economy and security. He has ruthlessly fought anti-Semitism within the party and has made some very tough calls, including sacking its shadow education secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and its former leader, Jeremey Corbyn. Labour was behind in the polls by around 20 per cent when he became its leader; it is now ahead by a similar figure.

‘The electorate is so volatile that only a fool would take his victory for granted,’ Baldwin says in his book. I am happy to be that ‘fool’ and believe that Starmer will be our next prime minister – a radical and ruthless one, as he will have to be to bring the changes to the country that are desperately needed. He is not afraid of making difficult decisions and he is prepared to change his mind when necessary. If Labour wins the next general election and his premiership is a fraction as successful as his career as a lawyer, he will be remembered as a competent leader, though he is also very lucky that the bar is so low, with the last four UK prime ministers having been complete failures – I am sure he knows that.