Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Many of his supporters hoped the prime minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has been curiously mixed By Daniel Trilling. Read by Simon Darwen. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:09.1	Welcome to The Guardian long read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.
0:15.9	For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to the Guardian.com forward slash long read.
0:24.8	This article contains some swearing.
0:28.6	Stama versus Stama
0:30.0	Why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?
0:36.8	By Daniel Trilling.
0:38.4	Read by Simon Darwin.
0:45.6	The international human rights system.
0:48.9	The rules, principles and practices intended to ensure that states do not abuse people, is under greater
0:55.5	threat now than at any other point since 1945.
1:00.4	Fortunately, we in the UK couldn't wish for a better qualified Prime Minister to face
1:05.7	this challenge.
1:07.8	Kirstama is a distinguished former human rights lawyer and prosecutor, with a 30-year career behind him,
1:14.6	who expresses a deep, personal commitment to defending ordinary people against injustice.
1:20.6	He knows human rights law inside out.
1:23.6	In fact, he literally wrote a book on its European incarnation and has acted as a lawyer
1:29.7	at more or less every level of the system. Stama is the only British Prime Minister,
1:35.4	and probably the only world leader, to have argued a case under the Genocide Convention
1:40.1	against Serbia on behalf of Croatia in 2014 at the International Court of Justice.
1:46.0	He is also an experienced administrator through his time as director of public prosecutions, DPP,
1:53.0	which means he knows how to operate the machinery of state better than most politicians do.
	...

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