Sir Keir Starmer has paid tribute to his brother Nick who died from cancer on Boxing Day at the age of 60.
The prime minister said: “My brother Nick was a wonderful man. He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. We will miss him very much.
“I would like to thank all those who treated and took care of Nick. Their skill and compassion is very much appreciated.”
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 26 December after battling cancer.
“We ask for privacy for Nick’s wider family at this time.”
The PM was set to go on holiday with his family on Friday but it is understood he will now stay at home.
Sir Keir has always been protective of his family’s privacy, particularly that of his children, but has spoken about Nick in interviews as well as sharing details of his relationship with his siblings for a recent biography.
The prime minister is the middle child of four siblings: two sisters and a brother. His younger siblings, Katy and Nick are twins, while he has one older sister, Ana. They all grew up together, in a house of six, with their parents.
“I shared a bunk bed with my brother in a room with an airing cupboard and just enough space for a couple of small desks where we’d do our homework,” Sir Keir said in Tom Baldwin’s Keir Starmer: The Biography.
His younger brother Nick had learning difficulties due to complications at birth.
Sir Keir spoke for the first time about their relationship in the new biography: “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.
“Even now I try to avoid using words like that to describe anyone.”
His sister Katy said the pair got into fights protecting Nick, with Katy saying that she “certainly punched a few people”.
Sir Keir said he admired Nick, who gained a technical qualification, “not in spite of the way his life has taken another course to mine, but because of it”. And he recalled his father Rodney and mother Jo instilling in him the idea that people should be respected for what they overcome.
“I remember Dad saying to me many, many times, ‘Nick has achieved as much as you, Keir’,” he said in the biography.
Sir Keir was the best man at Nick’s wedding and described 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 chaotic day, Sir Keir discovered there was no reception planned before rushing to Tesco to buy up every available sandwich for a hastily arranged get together in the garden of Nick’s cottage.
Sir Keir has used Nick’s story as an example of a flaw in his own vision for those born working class to lead more comfortable lives than their parents. Speaking of his brother’s experience, he said: “The whole thing is so poignant… because 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.”
