Starmer says he will still be Prime Minister this time next year
Sir Keir Starmer says he will still be Prime Minister this time next year, warning frequent leadership changes are not in the “national interest”.
In his first interview of 2026 with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour leader dismissed speculation over his position after a difficult 2025 marked by poor polling and slow economic growth.
“Under the last government, we saw constant chopping and changing of leadership, of teams, it caused utter chaos, utter chaos, and it’s amongst the reasons that the Tories were booted out so effectively at the last election,” he said.
“Nobody wants to go back to that. It’s not in our national interest.”
He added: “We know from that evidence what happens if you go down that chaotic path, and I’m not going to take us back to that kind of chaos.
“I will be sitting in this seat by 2027 and if this long-form interview works, we can try it again in January of next year as well.”
Sir Keir told the public broadcaster he was elected with a “five-year mandate” to change the country and intended to deliver on that promise.
“I will be judged, and I know I’ll be judged, when we get to the next election, on whether I’ve delivered on the key things that matter most to people,” he said.
The interview followed his new year message, in which he acknowledged life is still “harder than it should be” for many Britons but he promised more people will begin to feel “a sense of hope” in the coming months.
He insisted the Government will “defeat the decline and division offered by others” by “staying the course” with its efforts to improve public services and the cost of living.
The Prime Minister warned “renewal is not an overnight job”, and said “the challenges we face were decades in the making”.
He told the country: “In 2026, the choices we’ve made will mean more people will begin to feel positive change in your bills, your communities and your health service.”
Sir Keir was last interviewed by Ms Kuenssberg in September, when he pleaded for “space to get on and do what we need to do”, adding: “We have the fight of our lives ahead of us, because we’ve got to take on Reform, we’ve got to beat them.”
A Reform UK spokesman: “The next election will be between continued managed decline under Labour or a new path of change under Reform that prioritises the British people.
“Britain has suffered enough under Tory and Labour mismanagement. Britain needs Reform.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Panto season.
Oh no he wont.
😂🤣😂🤣
Tempting Providence; the Gordon Bennett cut…
As long as he doesn’t say boo to the orange goose.
Oliver Twist again.
Next year, Hogmanay at the Bumbles.
No remission from Judge Dread and @Lemmy not Lammy…
Mr and Mrs Bumble for ever more, think twelve month back, how to loose an election…morons; nasty, stupid, thick, mean, arrogant, dishonest, disingenuous and a cats cradle of relationships, lever pullers and law-makers constantly crossing lines the public rarely saw without looking hard…the un-elected calling the shots…they work for them not you and me…
He’s behind you!
Yep! And I’m winning the lottery, even though I don’t buy a ticket!
Read @WillHayward on this? The May devolved & local elections will put paid to the Genocide enabler! Good!
After what looks like being a punishing electoral period for Labour, I suspect McSweeney’s handlers will want him shunted out for replacement by Streeting, a man so utterly devoid of principles that he probably can’t be considered sentient. Watch out for the inevitable drip feed of briefings against Burnham or anyone else that looks likely to show up how unpopular Streeting is when compared to anyone with more personality than a small tin of beige paint. Corbyn’s biggest failing was in not excising these sleeper agents from the party and thereby forcing them to start from scratch at party creation… Read more »
Not sure Starmer’s reaction and obsequious performance over the planned ‘annexation’ of Venezuela’s naturel resources by the US will help his political career. It appears, depressingly, much of the Westminster cabal share Starmer’s selective views of international law, if those laws ever were worth much.