Unveiling Keir Starmer's Father: Meet Rodney!

KEIR Starmer has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since July 2024, but is currently hanging on to his position as after major backlash.

He comes from a family of supporters, including his father Rodney. Here’s what we know about him.

Rodney Starmer was the father of Keir Starmer Credit: AFP via Getty Images

Who was Keir Starmer’s dad Rodney?

Rodney was father, with the politician being the second of four children.

He was married to Josephine Starmer, with the family being strong labour supporters.

Living in Surrey, they named Keir after the Labour party’s first parliamentary leader – Keir Hardie.

However the family are said to have never spoken about politics at the dinner table.

Josephine worked as a nurse, with Rodney working as a toolmaker in a factory.

Rodney took much of his time caring for Josephine, who was ill for much of her life with Still’s disease.

Still’s disease is a rare systemic autoinflammatory illness that attacks joints and organs.

Defending his background, the Labour leader told the Today programme: “As for the middle-class thrust, as you know, my dad worked in a factory, he was a toolmaker and my mum was a nurse.

“She contracted a very rare disease early in her life which meant she was constantly in need of NHS care. Actually, my background isn’t what people think it is.

“I have actually never been in any other workplace other than a factory until I left university.

“I had never been in an office. So the idea that somehow I personally don’t know what it’s like for people across the country in all sorts of different circumstances is just not borne out.”

When did Rodney Starmer die?

Rodney died in December 2018, two years before his son became leader of the Labour party.

This was three years after Josephine, who passed away in 2015.

What has Keir Starmer said about his dad?

Starmer has spoken on a number of occasions about his complicated relationship with his father.

During an interview with BBC Radio 4, Starmer described their relationship.

He said: “I don’t often talk about my dad. He was a difficult man, a complicated man.

“He kept himself to himself. He didn’t particularly like to socialise, so he wouldn’t really go out very much.

“He had this utter commitment and devotion to my mum.

“My mum was very, very ill all of her life and my dad knew exactly the symptoms of everything that might possibly go wrong with my mum.

“He stopped drinking completely just in case he ever needed to go to the hospital with her.”

He also revealed he regretted that the pair weren’t particularly close.

“I wouldn’t say we were close,” he said.

“I understood who he was, and what he was. But we weren’t close. And, I regret that.”

Sir Keir added: “As young children we spent a lot of time in and out of high dependency units with my mum, thinking we were going to lose her.

“I remember one occasion when I was about 13 or 14, my dad phoning me from the hospital and saying ‘I don’t think mum’s going to make it, will you tell the others?’

“And that was tough. That was really tough. So we pulled through that as a family.”

He later spoke about his regrets on things he didn’t tell his father when he was alive.

He told the High Performance Podcast in 2023: ““I don’t regret very much in life, but the last time I saw my dad he was in hospital, dying.

“And I walked away and I knew he was going to die. I just knew it.

“I knew I wouldn’t see him again and I didn’t turn around to go back and tell him what I thought and I should have done.

“Is this advice to my teenage self? I don’t know. It’s hardwired advice for myself in relation to my relationship with our children.

“So I’ve tried to make sure that is completely different and that we are together we talk and we know each other.”

Asked what he would have said to his father, Starmer replied: “I would have said ‘I love you’.

“I’d have also said ‘I’m proud of you’ and have tried to close that gap that was so important in his life.”