If Labour wins the next election, Keir Starmer may have to give evidence as prime minister about his past. Awkwardly he may have to face his close former Doughty Street chambers colleague at a long-running public inquiry into the police. The Labour leader has been urged to give evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad and National Public Order Intelligence Unit – so-called “spy cops” – since 1968.
The inquiry was set up by Theresa May while Home Secretary in 2015 to investigate how more than 100 secret police officers targeted individuals and groups linked to political and social justice campaigns. Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. A group of 18 environmental campaigners want him to answer questions over whether he helped to conceal how some spy cops caused the wrongful prosecutions of activists.
Starmer’s former chambers colleague, Maya Sikand KC, is representing ex-spy cop turned whistle blower Peter Francis. His revelations, which include claims that undercover police spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, triggered the inquiry.
In an embarrassing twist, another of Starmer’s ex-girlfriends, Phillipa Kaufmann KC, with whom he lived between 1997 and 2001, is also representing alleged victims at the Undercover Policing Inquiry. The inquiry, which was only expected to last three years, has gone on for almost a decade so far costing taxpayers £82 million. The inquiry has revealed that law enforcement officers were improperly having illicit sexual relations whilst on the job.
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”