A heartbroken Keir Starmer was by his younger brother’s side when doctors told his sibling he was terminally ill, it has been revealed.
The grieving Prime Minister has opened up about how his beloved brother, Nick Starmer, was told he had inoperable lung cancer.
Nick, who suffered from learning difficulties, died on Boxing Day, aged 60. Sir Keir, who despite being one of the most powerful men in Britain, is deeply private about his family life and rarely spoke of his sibling’s ill health.
He has since paid emotional tribute to his brother, who has described as a ‘wonderful man’ who had a ‘really tough life’.
Now, the PM’s biographer, Tom Baldwin, has revealed the true depth’s of the Labour leader’s tender relationship with Nick, who Sir Keir also supported with cash.
Nick fought off pancreatic cancer in 2022 but the disease later returned, spreading to his lungs. Mr Starmer accompanied his younger sibling to the hospital when medics broke the devastating news.
‘Nick is mostly deaf, unable to work and is going to die – that’s it,’ the PM disclosed to Mr Baldwin.
‘I didn’t want him to be on his own when he got this news,’ he added, as he questioned whether Nick had ‘really got his head around’ the terminal diagnosis.
During the last two years of Nick’s life, Sir Keir would make regular trips to Leeds to see his sibling in the hospital.
But he refused to speak publicly about his brother’s illness and never tried to exploit it for political gain, Mr Baldwin wrote in The Times.
The PM did discuss his brother’s illness in private with his biographer – although the details were left out of Mr Baldwin’s book ‘Keir Starmer: The Biography’, when it was published in February.
Describing Nick’s health, the PM said his brother begun suffering from breathing problems and claimed his poor hearing had led to his sibling being unable to work.
‘He had this sort of nomadic existence,’ Mr Starmer said. ‘I didn’t know how bad it had got because he was too embarrassed to ask for help.
‘He closed in on himself – didn’t come to London – and started rocking up at this church in Harrogate where they wrapped their arms around him and that became his community.’
Friends of the PM told Mr Baldwin that Sir Keir would ‘often help Nick out with cash’.
The politician added Nick ‘met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour’, and said he and his family would ‘miss him very much’.
In his biography, the Prime Minister describes how he was best man for Nick, and stood up for him after enduring bullying throughout his life.
Nick suffered complications at birth, and was subsequently told he would never be able to read – though he later learned thanks to help from his mother, Jo.
While young Keir was considered something of a star pupil, Nick was granted only ‘remedial’ education with lessons in a village hall and took no exams. But he later achieved a technical qualification, and was able to get a job as a labourer working on scrap cars and at a scaffolding firm.
Sir Keir said in the biography: ‘Nick was dealt a very different set of cards to me and he’s had problems all his life — problems I’ve never had to face.
‘I admire him, not in spite of the way his life has taken another course to mine, but because of it.
‘I remember Dad saying to me many, many times: “Nick has achieved as much as you, Keir”.’
Yet Nick’s learning difficulties and health issues meant he was unable to hold down a job for very long.
Sir Keir was best man for Nick when he got engaged to his girlfriend, describing how he borrowed a car so that his younger sibling wasn’t ‘driving his bride from the church in his beaten-up minivan, which had all his clothes in the back’, he told Baldwin.
The older brother also sprang into action when he discovered Nick had made no plans for a wedding reception after the ceremony.
Sir Keir raided the sandwich section of a local supermarket and created a makeshift marquee in the garden of Nick’s cottage to allow people to stand outside in the event of rain.
The marriage did not last, and Nick’s health got worse, with breathing problems and partial deafness preventing him from doing manual work.
A spokesman said: ‘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’
In 2021, Sir Keir persuaded Nick to use the money he had received from the sale of their parents’ house to buy himself a home in Yorkshire.
But Nick fell seriously ill and need an emergency operation.
The Labour leader broke off from campaigning in the local elections in order to visit his brother in hospital.
The abuse Nick received throughout his life, Sir Keir said, informed his own decision to refrain from using insulting words to others.
‘I shared a room with him, but Nick didn’t have many friends and got called ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ by other kids,’ Sir Keir recalled.
‘Even now I try to avoid using words like that to describe anyone.’
Sir Keir has spoken a lot about his parents’ confidence that life was ‘going to get better for their kids’. But he acknowledged Nick’s experience’s did not chime with his parents’ aspirations.
‘The whole thing is so poignant,’ he told Baldwin, ‘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.’
In a moving statement issued on Friday, Sir Keir thanked the doctors and nurses who had been treating Nick and remembered his brother’s resilience and good nature.
‘My brother Nick was a wonderful man. He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour,’ the PM said.
‘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 spokesman for the PM 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.’
Sir Keir had been due to spend Christmas with his family at Chequers, his official country residence, before going abroad for a few days over New Year.
The PM also has two sisters, Anna. and Katy (who was Nick’s twin).
MPs including Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch offered their condolences to the Prime Minister following the announcement of his brother’s death.
Mrs Badenoch said ‘such awful news’ was ‘particularly devastating at Christmas time’.
Julian Smith, the Tory MP for Skipton and Ripon, sent his ‘thoughts and prayers’ to Sir Keir, adding that it was a ‘particularly difficult time of year to lose a loved one’.
Dr Shabina Qayyum, a Labour councillor in Peterborough, wrote on X: ‘Deepest condolences to the Prime Minister, Sir @Keir_Starmer on the passing of his brother, Nick.
‘My thoughts are with his family at this sad time.’
