Keir Starmer has told how his wife of 15 years, Victoria, talks through ideas on how to improve the country with him, but doesn’t want to be in the limelight.
“She's a streetwise grounded, brilliant, gorgeous woman who wants as far as she can to get on with her own life and to protect it,” said the Labour leader in an interview with the Sunday Mirror. “She loves working for the NHS. She loves the team that she's working with.
“And she and I are doing our best to raise two happy and confident children and that matters hugely to us." She won’t be introducing him before his leader’s speech on Tuesday - and he hasn’t been rehearsing it in front of her.
“I don’t think I’d put her through that…” he laughed. “I talk to her about what we’re going to say and how we’re going to say it. And she has views on all of that. But that’s the normal to and fro in a family.”
Mr Starmer said she is an important sounding board, particularly with her experience of working in the health service. “I get a direct line of sight on a daily basis into the challenges of the NHS and the morale of the staff,” he said.
Asked how his wife copes with being known as the wife of a prominent politician, Mr Starmer said: “I think the biggest concern I have is about the impact it has on my family. We don't know what's going to happen next year and our first job is to put that positive case before the country.
“And a big part of that is at conference, where we proudly and confidently answer the question 'Why Labour?' with our programme, with our welding together of reassurance and hope. So far as Vic is concerned. Firstly, she'd never asked for this role. She is very grounded. She's working in the NHS. She has her own life and protects it vigorously. Obviously, it is a challenge. But our main focus is on protecting our children together.”