Keir Starmer will be glad to see the back of 2025 and be hoping for a better 2026. Not least that he is still PM at the end of it. That is by no means certain.
The received wisdom in the Labour Party is that May’s local, Wales and Scotland elections could be the tipping point. Labour is braced to do badly.
A leadership challenge will depend on just how badly, and the PM is alert to that danger. Which is why he has scheduled the King’s speech outlining his next Parliamentary agenda for just a week later.
Labour MPs would look a bit silly voting for that and trying to topple him at the same time. Expect Angela Rayner to be back in the tent by then, too, to shore up his left flank.
No one could have predicted the unpredictable events of 2025. There was Rachel Reeves crying in PMQs, and we still don’t know why. But it was enough to spook the markets.
Keir Starmer has carefully timed the King's Speech to try and save his skin. It won't work - Nigel Nelson
|Getty Images
Keir Starmer has carefully timed the King's Speech to try and save his skin. It won't work - Nigel Nelson | Getty ImagesMore From GB News