Who Is Victoria Starmer, Britain's New “First Lady”?

So, it’s official: the polls are in, and the Labour Party has triumphed in the 2024 U.K. General Election. Keir Starmer will govern the country with a considerable majority, moving into Downing Street from his north London townhouse imminently, alongside his wife Victoria Starmer. But who is the new prime minister’s wife and Britain’s new “first lady”?

Victoria, 51, is a former solicitor and now an NHS occupational therapist. She first met Keir when they were both lawyers; Keir rang Victoria’s office about the accuracy of some documents, and before he hung up, he overheard Victoria exclaim: “Who the fuck does he think he is?” It was, he told British Vogue in his March 2024 profile, “absolutely classic Vic.” The pair would go on to marry at the Fennes Estate in Essex in 2007, and have two children: a 16-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter.

Victoria Alexander, as she was then known, grew up in the Gospel Oak area of London, the daughter of an economics lecturer father and a community doctor mother. After attending the independent Channing School, she studied law and sociology at the University of Cardiff in the ’90s. She first dipped her toes into politics when she decided to run for president of Cardiff’s Student Union; she won “in a landslide,” receiving nearly twice as many votes as her closest competitor. She then volunteered for Tony Blair’s campaign, before qualifying as a solicitor and working for a Soho firm specializing in street crime.

Sir Keir Starmer and Victoria in Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference in October 2023.Photo: Getty Images