Sir Keir Starmer: Top lawyer whose 'Mr Rules' approach failed to connect with the public

Sir Keir Starmer: Top lawyer whose 'Mr Rules' approach failed to connect with the public8 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBecky MortonandBrian Wheeler,political reportersGetty ImagesFew politicians have endured a more dramatic fall from grace than Sir Keir Starmer.Less than two years ago, he was celebrating a landslide general election victory and was seemingly set to dominate British politics for years to come. Now he has been ejected from power by his own party and instead of ushering in a "decade of national renewal," as he had promised, he is contemplating a return to the back benches.In an emotional resignation speech, delivered at a lectern outside his Downing Street front door, he said his party had asked "whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election"."I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace."The scale of Labour's victory in 2024 puts Sir Keir in very rarefied company - only two previous Labour leaders, Tony Blair and Clement Attlee, had managed to win elections with three-figure parliamentary majorities.But it was achieved on an historically low share of the national vote, and Sir Keir's popularity with the electorate nosedived within weeks of him arriving in Downing Street, after a series of mis-steps and policy U-turns, and never really recovered.The fact that he will go down now in history as Labour's shortest-serving prime minister will be a bitter pill for him to swallow.A promise to restore trust in politics Sir Keir Starmer was always an unusual Labour leader. He had come late to politics, only becoming an MP in his 50s after a high-flying career in law.Unlike most of his predecessors, he had not spent decades honing his political skills and building alliances with colleagues. It was not always clear where he stood on the political spectrum.He saw this lack of baggage as a strength, once boasti...