The Starmer Project
A Journey to the Right
Published on 19. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-83674-039-1 (ISBN)
Description
The Starmer Project is a forensic and revealing account of Keir Starmer's rise to the top of British politics. Oliver Eagleton paints a fascinating picture of a human-rights barrister turned chief prosecutor and his handling of a number of cases involving the police and security services. He traces Starmer's political alliances and his leading role in Labour's Brexit agony. When Starmer stood for party leader, he pledged to revitalise Corbynism with a dose of lawyerly competence. The Starmer Project details how he instead purged Jeremy Corbyn and pulled Labour to the right.
Helped into power by the Conservatives' collapse in 2024, Starmer was soon as unpopular as his Tory predecessors. Embroiled in austerity and allegations of sleaze, he has further alienated the public and disappointed business interests as well. He stands accused by critics on the left and right alike of lacking principles. But although devoid of charisma, Starmer is anything but an empty political vessel. Indeed, the implications of his authoritarian politics for a country in need of renewal, not retrenchment, appear dire.
This is the definitive, updated and revealing biography of the Labour Prime Minister.
Helped into power by the Conservatives' collapse in 2024, Starmer was soon as unpopular as his Tory predecessors. Embroiled in austerity and allegations of sleaze, he has further alienated the public and disappointed business interests as well. He stands accused by critics on the left and right alike of lacking principles. But although devoid of charisma, Starmer is anything but an empty political vessel. Indeed, the implications of his authoritarian politics for a country in need of renewal, not retrenchment, appear dire.
This is the definitive, updated and revealing biography of the Labour Prime Minister.
Reviews / Votes
A beautifully written and balanced study, revealing of the man himself. -- Simon Jenkins, author of <i>Thatcher and Sons</i> A cogent left-wing critique. -- Andrew Grice * Independent * The meatiest biography of the leader of the opposition to date. -- Patrick Maguire * The Times * The Starmer Project is the most original and insightful of the book-length studies of Starmer. -- Andrew Sparrow * Guardian * Starmer's leadership cannot be understood without grasping the Corbyn project that flared to life in 2015, then decomposed and died in 2019. There remains, in most punditry, a lack of curiosity about that experience...Oliver Eagleton's The Starmer Project, the best account of his leadership so far, sets out to correct this. -- Richard Seymour * New Statesman * [A] persuasive new biography. -- Andy Beckett * Guardian * An enjoyably hostile new biography. * Economist * Brilliant, deserves to be widely read. It may end up as an obituary for Labour. -- Donald Sassoon * Political Quarterly *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
196 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83674-039-1 (9781836740391)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Oliver Eagleton is an Assistant Editor at New Left Review and Sidecar. He writes on culture and politics for the Guardian, TLS, Literary Review and Novara.