Please bookmark for future updates
Nick Starmer, 60, who had cancer, ‘met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour’, says PM
Keir Starmer has paid tribute to his brother, Nick, who had cancer and died on Boxing Day aged 60.
The prime minister said his younger brother was “a wonderful man” who “met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour”.
He said in a statement: “I would like to thank all those who treated and took care of Nick. Their skill and compassion is very much appreciated.”
Starmer had been due to go on holiday abroad with his family on Friday but will now stay at home.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Nick Starmer. Nick, 60, died peacefully on the afternoon of December 26 after battling cancer. We ask for privacy for Nick’s wider family at this time.”
Starmer has spoken in the past about his protectiveness towards Nick, who developed learning difficulties after complications during his birth.
At school, Nick was labelled “remedial” and told he would never be able to read, though he proved this wrong. He was put in a special group who took lessons at a village hall and did not sit exams, and he left school without any formal qualifications.
He later gained a technical qualification and worked in scrap cars and scaffolding, but he struggled in life. His lifelong health problems made it difficult for him to hold down a job long term.
In a biography written by Tom Baldwin, Starmer recounted how he and his sisters got into fights at school to protect Nick from bullies. The two brothers shared bunk beds in a small bedroom until Keir went to university aged 18.
“We were a family of six, so it didn’t feel lonely and I shared a room with him, but Nick didn’t have many friends and got called ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ by other kids,” Starmer told Baldwin. “Even now I try to avoid using words like that to describe anyone.”
Starmer privately took time out during the 2022 local election campaign to make several visits to Nick in a Leeds hospital after he became seriously ill and nearly died.
The prime minister has used his brother’s story as an example of how people of working class do not always go on to lead more comfortable lives than their parents.
Speaking of his brother’s experience, he said: “The whole thing is so poignant … Nick has had a really tough life. So that dream our mum and dad had for us hasn’t come true. There’s this real, deep sadness in me about that for my brother, and for them.”
He recalled how his father, Rodney, repeatedly told him “Nick has achieved as much as you, Keir”, as he had had tougher barriers to overcome.
Starmer’s sister Katy, Nick’s twin, used to be a nurse and now works with adults who have Down’s syndrome. Anna, the eldest sister, went to horticultural college before raising a family and going on to work at a garden centre.
In Baldwin’s biography, Starmer recalled being the best man at Nick’s wedding and borrowing a car for the day so that Nick was not left “driving his bride from the church in his beaten-up minivan, which had all his clothes in the back”.
On the day, Starmer discovered there was no reception planned, so he rushed to Tesco to buy sandwiches for a hastily arranged get-together in Nick’s garden.
Keir Starmer pays tribute to brother who died on Boxing Day
