I’m seeing a lot of international messages getting this wrong, so this is how you refer to the Prime Minister of the UK.
First, we normally refer to the PM just by name, like anyone else. So, “Keir Starmer” or “Mr Starmer”.
“Prime Minister” is not used as a title like “President” is. He’s not “Prime Minister Starmer”. He’s just “the Prime Minister” or “the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer”.
Unusually, this new PM is also a knight. Of course, this has its own rules.
If you want to use this title, it’s not quite as simple as replacing “Mr” with "Sir’. The first name is more important than the surname here. He’s not “Sir Starmer”. He’s “Sir Keir Starmer” or “Sir Keir”.
Hope it helps!
I figured this was going to be somebody wanting to talk about his politics or something like that but no it’s just a pedantic Englishman pissed that people are using the wrong title
Why bother getting to know their politics? The UK has been going through Prime Ministers faster than McDonalds fry cooks.
/s
That always ends up happening. Whenever a government has being in power for too long they start to break into 90 different factions and spend their entire time fighting each other, and not getting anything else done.
Also a certain group of the Conservatives have started to play by the Republican Party playbook, while the rest of them are politely asking if maybe they could not be fascists? Of course appeasement never works so apparently the next best option is to have giant arguments about it and replace the PM every 10 minutes.
Fortunately Labour are another party, and regardless of what you think about them as a party, they are at least different and are less fractional currently, so perhaps now we can get something done.
And we love you for it! My current favorite YouTuber is doing a “Star Trek Reviewed by a pedant” https://youtube.com/@unlimited_lives?si=h3DEcI8wWpVj-MgK
OI MATE YEW GOT A LOISENSE TO TAWK ABOUT SIR KEIR?
That’s daddy Starmer for you, boy
Agreed in general, but I think ‘Prime Minister Starmer’ is fine tbh, when used by non UK media and people generally.
In fairness, this only applies in formal communication with someone from England. Even then, not everyone will choose to recognize his title, despite recognizing his position as PM.
It’s still good to know! Never hurts to have understanding of formalities like this, and it’s interesting. It’s just that the application of it isn’t going to come up often in places that aren’t part of the Commonwealth
Are you allowed to not use the title? Like, could a newspaper call him starmeyboy?
Absolutely - if anything, there’s a reluctance to use formal titles in the UK in general.
I used to teach at university - students and staff alike just use first names when addressing each other. When signing emails, we just use our first name, no letters, job title, anything.
It’s even something specifically touched on in our orientation guide for foreign students.
As for newspapers and Prime Ministers specifically, one of the biggest newspapers, The Guardian, has a cartoonist who has always drawn David Cameron with a condom covering his head. There’s absolutely no deference shown to Prime Ministers here.
