Labour ‘optimistic’ about 2026 as other parties prepare for local elections

Labour’s chairwoman has insisted she is “optimistic” about the party’s prospects in 2026, as its first full year of Government draws to a close.

Anna Turley acknowledged that people had not yet began to feel the “change” which Labour promised ahead of the 2024 election, but insisted to the Press Association that next year they would notice the impact of the Government’s actions.

Other parties at Westminster meanwhile appear fixed upon the next test of the electorate’s opinion at the ballot box as their major priority for 2026: the May local elections.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage even told PA that his three priorities for the year ahead were all the “May 7 elections”.

Labour has suffered a series of challenges throughout the year, including the resignation of high-profile figures Angela Rayner and Lord Peter Mandelson, the threat of backbench rebellion over welfare reforms, and a savage briefing war over potential plots to oust Sir Keir Starmer.

Over the same period, its place in opinion polls has slipped, to the point it now finds itself less popular than the Conservatives in some surveys of public opinion.

Despite these hurdles, Labour chairwoman Ms Turley told PA: “I feel really optimistic about the new year. First years are always going to be difficult when you’ve had 14 years out of government and getting the kind of inheritance that we had.”

She also pointed to the slow nature of the “machinery of Government” and Parliament as a factor in getting plans off the ground, citing Labour’s flagship workers rights package, the Employment Rights Bill.

Ms Turley said: “It’s taken over a year to get through Parliament. That is the reality of governing. Change takes time.”

Opinion polls and the local elections “are important because they’re a sense check of what the public is seeing and thinking and feeling”, she added, and ministers will listen to their outcome.

But she insisted that changes the Government has made since the election will begin to have an impact on Labour’s fortunes next year.

Ms Turley said: “We know that next year, people will really start to feel the change that we’re delivering in their pockets and on their doorsteps. So I’m full of confidence and full of positivity.

“We’ve just got to stay focused, get better at telling our story for people and make sure they can see and feel the change that we’re delivering.”

Elsewhere, the other parties at Westminster hope the tumultuous political atmosphere will provide them with a chance to make gains in May’s local elections.

Unlike elections in 2024, when a large number of councils up for election were held by the Tories, in 2026, Labour finds itself defending a majority of the seats up for grabs.

There are also elections for the devolved Parliaments in Wales and Scotland.

Kevin Hollinrake, the chairman of the Conservative Party meanwhile told PA: “The main priority is May’s elections.”

He added: “That’s when it really counts, what people think at the ballot box.”

Mr Hollinrake said it was “too early to say” whether the Tories would yet experience improved reception from voters, but added: “I think Kemi (Badenoch) definitely… there’s no doubt that she is cutting through in a way she wasn’t before.”

Similarly in 2026, the new year’s resolution for the Liberal Democrats is “win, win, win” at the local elections, the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said.

She hit out to further delays to some of the polls, prompted by the Government’s reorganisation of local councils, as “outrageous”.

“Going into the local elections next May, there’s just no ceiling on our ambition at all,” she said, insisting the party would continue its contest with the Tories in the so-called blue wall areas of southern England, and with Labour in northern English cities.

The Lib Dems are also gearing up to be a “Reform fighting machine” in council areas where they find themselves in a straight contest with the party, she said.

Reform’s Mr Farage also appeared to be fully focused on next year’s elections.

He told PA: “I’ve got three priorities: The first priority is the May 7 elections; The second priority is the May 7 elections; and the third priority is the May 7 elections.”