Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria could be getting the keys to Downing Street sooner than expected

THE first whiff that Sir Keir Starmer might be swapping his legal life for the world of politics came in – you guessed it – the New Journal and a piece entitled: ‘Keir, There and Everywhere’.

It was impossible not to notice that the former director of public prosecutions –now potentially just weeks away from becoming the Prime Minister – was back then appearing more regularly at local Labour party functions.

This was laughed off as part of the freedom of leaving a politically sensitive job, the evergreen explanation as to why Mr Starmer had not been seen among the grafting doorknockers in the area in the years before. Now he was there at the forefront of the resistance to worst effects of the High Speed 2 disruption around Euston – a policy position which occasionally became awkward once he had scaled further into national politics and eventually the party’s leader.

When the late Frank Dobson retired as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras ahead of the 2015 general election, the queuing line of hopefuls for such a safe Labour seat was long but an exciting race for the candidacy hardly materialised.

Mr Starmer promptly trounced the then council leader Sarah Hayward, who had the backing of Lord John Prescott, and left the campaigning lawyer Raj Chada in second place.

On the first day of his campaign to win that selection he blitzed into the lead by unveiling scores of endorsements from across Labour’s local political divide. The plan to run had obviously been in gestation for some time.

So while Lord Prescott had fired and missed at Sir Keir when he gibed that the party did not need “smooth talking professional politicians”, the eventual winner was sharing endorsements from Ken Livingstone to more centrist faces from Tony Blair’s government.

Perhaps most importantly to the local party members, however, he had the blessing of Mr Dobson himself, and Mr Starmer often still namechecks his predecessor in speeches about his political journey.

From that landslide selection win, he racked up big majorities at the general election counts in Holborn and St Pancras, but despite becoming an MP for the first time in 2015, there was still disappointment etched on his face at the celebratory drinks party in the Edinboro Castle pub in Camden Town.

Ed Miliband had failed to win the election and Labour’s life in opposition was to continue.

Some wanted him to immediately stand for the party’s leadership but, new to the Commons, he did not listen to the chant. Instead, he became part of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow front bench – at the time calling him ‘a friend’, an idea he has since denied being really true.

Mr Starmer would congratulate Mr Corbyn for the raptured audiences he could command and his emphatic wins in two leadership contests. Nobody remembers Mr Corbyn’s second vanquished Owen Smith now, do they?

But Mr Starmer’s compliments always came with the coded line that Mr Corbyn was “not a messiah” and the unseen but maybe predictable strain between the two came to the fore once Mr Starmer had become the leader himself, removing the whip in a dispute over the lack of seriousness that Mr Starmer felt Mr Corbyn had applied to complaints of anti-semitism within the party.

Sozzled Rishi Sunak calls a general election for July 4 [Simon Lamrock]

Mr Starmer has faced criticism since then of ripping up pledges he made when he first stood for leader – such as bringing basic utilities into public ownership.

His party has also been accused of a timid so-called ‘Ming vase strategy’, whereby it has been decided that the lead in the opinion polls must not be risked by saying anything too expansive – especially against a chaotic period for the Conservatives.

His supporters say all of this is unfair and Labour has been bold in promising a revolution in workers’ rights, a new Great British energy company and reforms to the rail structure.

They also hate it when anybody suggests that Mr Starmer comes across as boring to the average voter, a comment which always comes with a reminder of a previous prime minister, Boris Johnson, stuck on a zipwire and holding parties during Covid.

His friends in the Pineapple pub in Kentish Town have also seen a more relaxed side when the cameras are off and he is chatting about Arsenal.

Mr Starmer celebrates re-election in 2017 with Tulip Siddiq

Last night (Wednesday), Mr Starmer – all these years on from that afternoon in St Pancras Church when he was first selected as the MP for the area – welcomed the chance for the nation to vote.

The prospect of moving from Kentish Town to Downing Street may have come sooner than expected, but it is a switch which the pollsters say will be hard for Rishi Sunak – who began his pitch to the nation with the gambit that Mr Starmer simply cannot be trusted – will find hard to prevent.

“This is a moment the country needs and has been waiting for,” Mr Starmer said. “It will feel like a long campaign, I’m sure of that but no matter what is said and done, the opportunity for change is what this election is about.”