Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his wife's career gives him 'an insight' into the NHS - and that she won't give up her work if he becomes Prime Minister.
Sir Keir has admitted he is already contemplating how his life will change if he moves into No 10 in just over one month's time - with the party well clear of the Tories in even the most cautious polls.
And while he may soon live at one of the most famous addresses in the world, he has insisted much of life will stay the same for his family - including wife Victoria, who works for the NHS in occupational health and met her husband-to-be through work.
The former director of public prosecutions says his wife has no intention of giving up her job should Labour win the election next month - because she gives him an unprecedented 'insight' into how the NHS is working.
He said of Victoria: 'She's absolutely going to carry on working, she wants to and she loves it. It's also good for me because it gives me an insight into the NHS.'
Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria heading out to vote in north London in the May local elections
Sir Keir on the campaign trail in Greenock yesterday. He says his wife's professional life will not change if he is elected as prime minister
Victoria and Sir Keir walking into the 2022 Labour Party conference in Liverpool. She has not been afraid to be pictured in public - but is not seen as a typical 'political spouse'
The pair share a kiss on stage during the 2023 Labour Party conference, also held in Liverpool
It isn't the first time the potential future PM has spoken about his wife's work in the health service - despite her keenness to remain out of the limelight.
Sir Keir said he wanted his teenage son's education to be 'untroubled' by a potential move to No 10.
He said: 'Our boy is in the middle of his GCSEs. At the moment I just want to create the environment where he can get on with what he's got to get on with as untroubled as he can be.
'He's got 21 exams. My job is just to create space for him to get on with that.'
Labour's election campaign kicked off this week following Rishi Sunak's unexpected general election call - months sooner than many, including members of the Conservatives, had expected.
Sir Keir said, however, that the shock announcement was in Labour's favour - and denied that the party was complacent about its chances of victory.
'Many people have decided they have had enough of 14 years of this (the Tories),' he added.
'Quite a lot have already decided they do want to come to Labour. But we have to address the fact there are a number of people who are still undecided.'
The Labour leader added that he was not concerned about those who could not pinpoint his ideological position.
He added: 'I know quite a lot of commentators say, well we can't seem to fix this guy on a political continuum, because people want to box you in.
'Are you in this place or that place? I make pragmatic decisions based on the issues as I see it in front of me. I don't give a second thought to political positioning on that.'
Sir Keir and Victoria with his parents Josephine and Rodney, taken on their wedding day in 2007
Victoria pictured with Sir Keir during a count for the 2017 general election. She has become a more public companion of her politico husband in recent years
Sir Keir and Lady Victoria Starmer taking their seats for the Euro 2020 final in London - held in July 2021 due to the pandemic
Sir Keir has frequently said that he wants to change political culture so it 'treads a little lighter on all our lives', or to 'return politics to public service', and he said he will ensure that starts on his front bench.
He said: 'There would be a mindset shift if we are privileged enough to come and serve. I will require my cabinet, front bench, all of our MPs to serve. That involves tough decisions.'
Sir Keir made the comments in a new interview with The Times.
Unlike the incumbent prime minister Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty - a multi-millionaire heiress to IT firm Infosys's $70billion (£54.9bn) fortune - little is known of Lady Victoria Starmer.
Sir Keir himself has said that she 'has her own life and protects it vigorously' - as he told the Sunday Mirror.
However, she is not an invisible spouse, and regularly appears with Sir Keir at public events and Labour party conferences. She stood on the doorstep to clap for carers, and stepped out with her husband to vote in the May local elections.
Comparisons have been made with Sarah Brown, wife of one-time Labour PM Gordon - someone who was content to be in the background with their own interests to pursue outside of their spouse's politics.
Sir Keir met Victoria Alexander while the pair worked as lawyers. Their first contact was an awkward phone call that ended with her muttering 'Who the f*** does he think he is?' after he asked whether documents she had drawn up were accurate.
'(She) then put the phone down on me. And quite right too,' said Sir Keir in a 2020 Piers Morgan's Life Stories interview.
Undeterred, the future Labour leader asked her on a date to the Lord Stanley pub in Camden in the early 2000s, and they married in 2007.
Lady Victoria is seen regularly in public with her husband - including here at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the late Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022
She is also a regular sight with her husband at major political events - pictured here in Liverpool during the 2023 Labour Party conference
Sir Keir and Lady Victoria attend Buckingham Palace for the State Banquet held in honour of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol last November
Sir Keir and Lady Victoria clapping for key workers outside their home in London in May 2020
They now share a £1.75million Kentish Town home with their two children - a teenager named Toby and a younger daughter whose name has not been made public.
Lady Victoria is Jewish, and Sir Keir has said he tries to uphold the Shabbat tradition of Friday night dinners as often as possible - despite being an atheist himself.
He previously told the Mirror: 'She's a streetwise grounded, brilliant, gorgeous woman who wants as far as she can to get on with her own life and to protect it.
'She loves working for the NHS. She loves the team that she's working with.
'And she and I are doing our best to raise two happy and confident children and that matters hugely to us.'
Outside of her NHS work, she has also served as also a governor at her children's school in Camden borough. In short, she has plenty to be getting on with should her husband become the new tenant in No 10.
As one insider presciently told The Telegraph in 2021: 'If he ever gets into Downing Street, she’s going to be very much leading her own life.'
