Legal career of Keir Starmer

Following his graduation with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 until being elected to the House of Commons in 2015, Prime Minister Keir Starmer practised law. He predominantly dealt with criminal defence work, specialising in human rights matters. In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, holding these positions until 2013. He previously prosecuted numerous cases for the CPS during his career, specialising as a defence lawyer with expertise in human rights law.

Starmer became a barrister in 1987 at the Middle Temple, becoming a bencher there in 2009, primarily working on human rights issues. He was called to the bar in several Caribbean countries, where he has defended convicts sentenced to the death penalty. In 1999, Starmer was a junior barrister on Lee Clegg's appeal. He assisted Helen Steel and David Morris in the McLibel case, in the trial and appeal in English courts, also representing them at the European court. Starmer served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Association of Chief Police Officers, and was also a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's death penalty advisory panel from 2002 to 2008. Becoming a member of Doughty Street Chambers in 1990, Starmer was appointed as Queen's Counsel (QC) in 2002.

Starmer became the new head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Director of Public Prosecutions in 2008, taking over from Ken Macdonald, He was considered to be bringing a focus on human rights into the legal system. During his time in the role, Starmer dealt with a number of major cases including helping to bring the two men accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence, to justice. In February 2010, Starmer announced the CPS's decision to prosecute three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer for offences relating to false accounting in the aftermath of the parliamentary expenses scandal, who were all found guilty. Starmer prioritised rapid prosecutions of rioters over long sentences during the 2011 England riots, which he later thought had helped to bring "the situation back under control". In February 2012, Starmer announced that Chris Huhne would be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. In 2013, Starmer announced changes to how sexual abuse investigations are handled in the wake of Operation Yewtree, including a panel to review historic complaints. Starmer left office in November 2013, and was replaced by Alison Saunders. He received honorary degrees from several universities, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) by Charles, Prince of Wales in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.

Barrister
Keir Starmer graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986. He became a barrister in 1987 at the Middle Temple, becoming a bencher there in 2009. Starmer served as a legal officer for the campaign group Liberty until 1990. He was a member of Doughty Street Chambers from 1990 onwards, primarily working on human rights issues. While at Doughty Street Chambers, he met his future wife, Victoria Alexander, a solicitor who was working on the same case.

Starmer was called to the bar in several Caribbean countries, where he has defended convicts sentenced to the death penalty. He assisted Helen Steel and David Morris in the McLibel case, in the trial and appeal in English courts, also represented them at the European court. The case was seen as a David and Goliath case; a large team of leading lawyers represented McDonald's and the legal bills were estimated at £10m. By contrast Steel and Morris were denied legal aid; they acted on their own with help from lawyers including Starmer.

Acting in several appeals to the Privy Council for defendants who had been sentenced to death in Caribbean countries, his legal submissions led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in those countries. He has recently worked with lawyers in African countries towards the same end. In 2005 he persuaded the House of Lords that evidence obtained by torture should be inadmissible in court. In 2007 he represented two alleged terrorists in a case in the House of Lords in which he successfully challenged their control orders on human rights grounds. He has also acted in 15 other cases in the House of Lords since 1999, including two cases about the conduct of British soldiers in Iraq, and representing David Shayler in his appeal against conviction for breaching the Official Secrets Act. He gave free legal advice to the defendants in the "McLibel" case, and was interviewed twice —ten years apart— in Franny Armstrong's 2005 documentary, McLibel.

Starmer was appointed Queen's Counsel on 9 April 2002, aged 39. In the same year, he became joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. Starmer served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Association of Chief Police Officers, and was also a member of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's death penalty advisory panel from 2002 to 2008. He later cited his work on policing in Northern Ireland as being a key influence on his decision to pursue a political career: "Some of the things I thought that needed to change in police services we achieved more quickly than we achieved in strategic litigation ... I came better to understand how you can change by being inside and getting the trust of people". During this time he also marched and authored legal opinions against the Iraq War. Starmer stated in 2015 that he believed that the Iraq War was "not lawful under international law because there was no UN resolution expressly authorising it." In 2007, he was named "QC of the Year" by Chambers and Partners.

Appointment
In July 2008, Patricia Scotland, Attorney General for England and Wales, named Starmer as the new head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Director of Public Prosecutions. He took over from Ken Macdonald on 1 November 2008. Macdonald, himself a former defence lawyer, publicly welcomed the appointment. Starmer was considered to be bringing a focus on human rights into the legal system.

Tenure
During his time in the role, Starmer dealt with a number of major cases including helping to bring Gary Dobson and David Norris, the two men accused of murdering 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence, to justice.

Within the first few months of his tenure, Starmer upheld the decision not to prosecute the police officers who had killed Jean Charles de Menezes in a UK High Court appeal lodged by the family. The family then gave up on pursuing charges and nobody has been charged with the death of de Menezes. Starmer was involved in the response to the Rochdale child sex abuse ring, and also tackled the issue of violence against women and girls. After the controversial conviction of Munir Hussain on 14 December 2009 for attacking a burglar who had terrorized Hussain and his family, he said:

"Keir Starmer QC: There are many cases, some involving death, where no prosecutions are brought ... We would only ever bring a prosecution where we thought that the degree of force was unreasonable in such a way that the jury would realistically convict. So these are very rare cases and history tells us that the current test works very well."

Starmer was involved in the decision to prosecute Omari Roberts, a trainee builder who killed a teenage burglar in a struggle at Roberts's mother's home. The prosecution case relied on the evidence of a second teenage burglar (who had many previous convictions for violent offences), and was eventually dropped on 19 April 2010, with Roberts being formally found not guilty. Mr. Roberts said:

"Omari Roberts: I never understood why they would not believe me and why they constantly took the word of a 14-year-old criminal over mine."

Roberts's mother suggests that if she had not been so vocal in her protests over the decision to prosecute or the 2010 general election was not in progress, the prosecution might not have been dropped.

In 2009, he sought a retrial of terrorists involved in a suicide bombing plot that saw them locked behind bars. Later in 2009, when the Conservative Party proposed repealing the Human Rights Act 1998, Starmer defended it as a "clear and basic statement of our citizens' human rights". Liberty and the Liberal Democrats supported Starmer, while the Conservative MP David TC Davies suggested he should be dismissed. In the same year, he called for the CPS to modernise by being more open to scrutiny and less reliant on paper files. In 2011, he introduced reforms that included the "first test paperless hearing".

In February 2010, Starmer announced the CPS's decision to prosecute three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer for offences relating to false accounting in the aftermath of the parliamentary expenses scandal. They were all found guilty. In the same year, he supported proposals to legally recognise different degrees of murder. In 2010, and 2012, Starmer said that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute two members of the UK security services for their alleged role in torture overseas; he supported further investigation.

In July 2010, Starmer announced the decision not to prosecute the police officer Simon Harwood in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson; this led to accusations by Tomlinson's family of a police cover-up. After a subsequent inquest found that Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed, Starmer announced that Harwood would be prosecuted for manslaughter. The officer was acquitted by a jury in July 2012 but dismissed from the police that September.

In September 2010, Stephen Lawrence murder suspects Gary Dobson and David Norris were arrested and charged without publicity. On 23   October 2010, Starmer applied to the Court of Appeal for Dobson's original acquittal to be quashed. Dobson was in prison at the time for drug dealing. Norris had not been previously acquitted, so no application was necessary in his case. The two were sentenced on 4 January 2012 to detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure, equivalent to a life sentence for an adult, with minimum terms of 15 years and 2 months for Dobson and 14 years and 3 months for Norris.

In December 2010, Starmer changed the decision process, including requiring his personal approval, to prosecute women who withdraw accusations of rape after a woman was convicted for perverting the course of justice "despite judges' belief that her claim of long-term abuse, intimidation and rape at the hands of her husband was true". He later produced guidelines to prevent women in similar circumstances from being unfairly prosecuted.

In 2011, thirteen serving and former police officers were prosecuted for perverting the course of justice in the 1988 murder of Lynette White. The prosecution were unable to provide documents which "could have helped" the defendants, that were claimed to have been destroyed by the police officer leading the case against them. The prosecution made the decision, approved by Starmer, not to offer any further evidence, and the trial collapsed. Starmer ordered a review into the circumstances that had led to the decision and ordered a further review in 2012 when the missing documents were found. During the 2011 England riots, Starmer prioritised rapid prosecutions of rioters over long sentences, which he later thought had helped to bring "the situation back under control". Later that year, after revelations concerning the undercover police infiltration of environmental campaigns, Starmer ordered a review of related convictions and invited protestors convicted of aggravated trespass to appeal their sentences. Starmer declined to authorise a wider enquiry, after a report from the judge Christopher Rose found the issue to be a result of individual fault rather than a systemic problem.

In February 2012, Starmer announced that Cameron–Clegg coalition cabinet minister Chris Huhne, and his former wife, Vicky Pryce, would be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice in R v Huhne. Huhne became the first UK cabinet minister in history to be compelled to resign as a result of criminal proceedings, he was succeeded in his government role by Ed Davey. Starmer had previously said in relation to the case that there is sufficient evidence we do not shy away from prosecuting politicians". Later that year, he wrote advice for prosecutors, saying that they should consider whether violent protestors organised or prepared for violence, compared to protestors who got "caught up in illegal actions". In the summer of 2012, journalist Nick Cohen published allegations that Starmer was personally responsible for allowing to proceed the prosecution of Paul Chambers in what became known as the "Twitter joke trial". Chambers' conviction of sending a message "of a menacing character" was quashed after a third appeal. The CPS denied that Starmer was behind the decision, saying that it was the responsibility of a Crown Court and was out of Starmer's hands. Later that year, Starmer published a plan for the criminal justice system to better handle cases of female genital mutilation; at the time, the offence had never been successfully prosecuted. At the end of 2012, he published guidance on prosecuting cases of grossly offensive posts on social media that called for caution in prosecuting cases, and considering whether users quickly removed posts or showed remorse.

In 2013, during the Operation Yewtree police investigation into Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse crimes which later resulted in the convictions of other serial sex offenders including Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris and Max Clifford, Starmer announced changes to how sexual abuse investigations are handled, including a panel to review cases of sexual abuse. When the news of Savile's crimes were exposed in 2012 through Mark Williams-Thomas's documentary The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, released a year after his death in 2011, Starmer responded by saying "It was like a dam had bust and people rightfully wanted to know why he had been allowed to get away with it for so long." Starmer was then made aware that there had been four complaints made against Savile to police in Surrey and Sussex about his past abuse during 2007 and 2008, but a decision had been taken against prosecuting him on the grounds that his victims themselves did not support court action and there was insufficient evidence. Starmer responded by saying "It never came close to crossing my desk and the local CPS lawyer who looked at the case did not even mention the decision to his immediate boss because, to him, it seemed routine."

Starmer's proposals were intended to make it easier for victims of violent crime to come forward and to facilitate their participation in criminal proceedings. In the same year, he published a study showing that false reports of rape were rare, saying that the "devastating impact of false allegations" and the perception that they are more common than the data support mean that police forces might adopt what he called a cautious approach that can "lead to injustice for victims" of rape. He also started an inquiry into the cause of a reduction in police reports of rape and domestic abuse. Also in 2013, Starmer altered guidelines for those improperly claiming benefits enabling them to face ten years in prison under the Fraud Act instead of a maximum of seven years under more specific legislation. In April 2014, Starmer recommended making the criminal justice system fit for victims." Starmer said of the Savile scandal:

Resignation
Starmer left office in November 2013, and was replaced by Alison Saunders. Later that month, the Labour Party announced that Starmer would lead an enquiry into changing the law to give further protection to victims in cases of rape and child abuse. On 28 December, he said to BBC News he was "rather enjoying having some free time" and "considering a number of options". There was speculation at the time that he would stand as a Labour Party candidate for the UK Parliament. From 2011 to 2014, Starmer received honorary degrees from several universities, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) by Charles, Prince of Wales in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.

Awards and honours



 * Appointed Queen's Counsel (QC) in 2002.
 * Bar Council's Sydney Elland Goldsmith Award in 2005 for his outstanding contribution to pro bono work in challenging the death penalty in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and the Caribbean.
 * Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
 * Appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours for "services to law and criminal justice".

Publications
Starmer is the author and editor of several books about criminal law and human rights, including:


 * Justice in Error (1993), edited with Clive Walker, London: Blackstone, ISBN 1-85431-234-0.
 * The Three Pillars of Liberty: Political Rights and Freedoms in the United Kingdom (1996), with Francesca Klug and Stuart Weir, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-09641-3.
 * Signing Up for Human Rights: The United Kingdom and International Standards (1998), with Conor Foley, London: Amnesty International United Kingdom, ISBN 1-873328-30-3.
 * Miscarriages of Justice: A Review of Justice in Error (1999), edited with Clive Walker, London: Blackstone, ISBN 1-85431-687-7.
 * European Human Rights Law: the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights (1999), London: Legal Action Group, ISBN 0-905099-77-X.
 * Criminal Justice, Police Powers and Human Rights (2001), with Anthony Jennings, Tim Owen, Michelle Strange, and Quincy Whitaker, London: Blackstone, ISBN 1-84174-138-8.
 * Blackstone's Human Rights Digest (2001), with Iain Byrne, London: Blackstone, ISBN 1-84174-153-1.
 * A Report on the Policing of the Ardoyne Parades 12 July 2004 (2004), with Jane Gordon, Belfast: Northern Ireland Policing Board.