Britain | The Labour Party

Keir Starmer, middle-class hero

The Labour Party leader is a hit in the Tories’ backyard

“KEIR IS AN absolutely fantastic fit for here,” says Andrew Western. It’s a striking claim, for Altrincham and Sale West, a constituency south of Manchester, is not natural terrain for the Labour Party. Sir Graham Brady, a Tory bigwig, has represented the medieval market town since 1997, and his party hasn’t lost since 1924. The area is home to footballers, their wives and their actor pals, and bristles with charming restaurants, hair salons and Scandi furniture shops. It has some of the country’s best GCSE results and the lowest levels of deprivation, and house prices to match. Little wonder that the Sunday Times, the newspaper of the skiing-and-sourdough classes, recently crowned it the best place to live in Britain.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Middle-class hero”

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