Starmer will ‘absolutely’ still be prime minister by next Christmas, says Labour chair – UK politics live | Politics
Labor leader insists of course Starmer will be prime minister next Christmas
Keir Starmer will “absolutely” be prime minister next Christmas, Anna Turley said when asked by Trevor Phillips, amid ongoing speculation that Labor figures are maneuvering to replace him.
Turley told Sky News:
Certainly. Definitely. Like I said, people will really start to see and feel the change in their pockets.
Keirs has a very clear vision of ensuring that people can actually cope with their living costs and that public services can get back on their feet.
And he is building a Britain that is tolerant, open, confident and, as opposed to the division and decline of the opposition, really about regeneration and investment in young people.
I’ve sat around the cabinet table and there’s a team there that is relentlessly focused on delivering services on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s the NHS, education, defence, housing.
This is a team determined to deliver on the promises we made last year and support a prime minister with a clear vision for the renewal of this country.
Starmer, widely unpopular despite his landslide victory last summer, is approaching a dangerous moment in next year’s May election, when Labor is expected to face disastrous results across the country.
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Conservatives will ‘ruin’ upcoming local elections and won’t need to make deal with Reform, deputy leader says
Tory deputy leader Matt VickersHe was also interviewed by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning. Phillips asked him if the Conservatives had spoken to Reform about a possible election deal.
“No. We will go there and destroy the next election,” Vickers, who is also the shadow police minister, replied confidently.
The Conservative party leader, MP for Stockton West, said: Kemi Badenochhas been doing its “homework” and listening to what voters have to say since last year’s general election.
Vickers said:
Actually, there is a big difference. The biggest difference between us and other parties is that we are a party that supports the working class.
We will not nationalize everything that moves. We will not tax them to death.
We will not give up the advantages and unlimited benefits. We will not lift those two boy hats like Reform or Labor. We’re here for working people doing the right job.
While the Tories’ overall poll ratings remain stubbornly low, Badenoch has been praised by some MPs and some commentators for his recent Commons performances.
In an interview with The Observer newspaper this weekend, health secretary Wes Streeting insisted he had Starmer’s “absolute support”.
He was forced to deny that he planned to sack the prime minister in November after a briefing battle at the heart of the government. At the time, Streeting condemned the “self-defeating” attacks on him from Downing Street, saying they were indicative of the toxic culture in No 10.
In the Observer interview, he also shrugged off suggestions of a joint leadership list with former housing minister and deputy chancellor Angela Rayner, telling the paper:
The more I see this job, the pressure on Keir and the demands of the job up close, the more I wonder why anyone would want this.
Labor leader insists of course Starmer will be prime minister next Christmas
Keir Starmer will “absolutely” be prime minister next Christmas, Anna Turley said when asked by Trevor Phillips, amid ongoing speculation that Labor figures are maneuvering to replace him.
Turley told Sky News:
Certainly. Definitely. Like I said, people will really start to see and feel the change in their pockets.
Keirs has a very clear vision of ensuring that people can actually cope with their living costs and that public services can get back on their feet.
And he is building a Britain that is tolerant, open, confident and, as opposed to the division and decline of the opposition, really about regeneration and investment in young people.
I’ve sat around the cabinet table and there’s a team there that is relentlessly focused on delivering services on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s the NHS, education, defence, housing.
This is a team determined to deliver on the promises we made last year and support a prime minister with a clear vision for the renewal of this country.
Starmer, widely unpopular despite his landslide victory last summer, is approaching a dangerous moment in next year’s May election, when Labor is expected to face disastrous results across the country.
Sixty-three council areas may choose to postpone elections until 2027 after some were postponed until May 2026 due to the consolidation of two-tier authorities into single unitary councils.
The Electoral Commission has expressed concern about the possibility of further delays in council elections in England, saying capacity restrictions were not a legitimate reason to postpone long-planned elections.
This year, polls in several council areas have been canceled in East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex and Thurrock, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.
Anna Turley told Sky News the government had delivered the biggest change to local government in the last 50 years.
The Labor Party leader confirmed there was “no change in the plan” for the general election, which is due to be held by 15 August 2029, adding: “This is a huge program of local government reform and it is right that we do it sensibly and calmly, and it will take time for that to happen.”
Trevor Phillips points out Labour’s dismal poll figures (Reform is consistently the top party and Labor appears to be losing votes to the Green party to its left, which is gaining momentum under leader Zack Polanski).
Turley said people were “rightfully” impatient for change but insisted it would take time for the government to deliver.
It highlights the employment rights bill that finally became law late last week, 18 months after Labour’s landslide election victory.
The bill, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, will give workers access to sick pay and paternity leave from their first day of work and include extra safeguards for pregnant women and new mothers.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot noted in this story, the struggle to pass the legislation, which faced significant opposition from Conservatives and business groups, meant the government made a number of concessions to secure its passage.
Unions agreed earlier this month to remove day one rights for unfair dismissal from the reform package in exchange for removing the compensation cap, and for the bill to pass parliament in time for the new rights to be introduced from April.
Turley said Labor had made five million extra NHS appointments in its first year in government, but admitted public services were “on their knees” so concrete change would take time to be perceived by the public.
“Next year [people] They will actually start to see and feel more money in their pockets, better public services when looking for a doctor’s appointment, and streets and neighborhoods looking better and better. And that change takes time,” Turley said.
The Labor leader has some comments. Anna Turley To Sky News’ Trevor Phillips this morning. He asked her if Keir Starmer As the Prime Minister told Boris Johnson in 2020, he cannot take “tough decisions until it is too late”.
Turley defended the government’s record, saying it had “stabilized” the economy after “inheriting an absolute wreck” from the previous Conservative administration.
Turley also pointed out that there would be wider access to free school meals in England.
The government has announced an expansion of FSM eligibility from September 2026, allowing all children in households receiving universal credit benefits to receive free lunches. Currently, those with a net household income of less than £7,400 per year are eligible.
But the expansion of free school meals will benefit far fewer children in England than initially claimed, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
In this analysis piece, the Guardian’s health policy editor Denis Campbell examines the history of these strikes and considers how likely it is that a deal will be reached after the 14th strike by junior doctors over a long-running pay dispute. Here is an excerpt:
Streeting says the British Medical Association is being unreasonable; Doctors’ union BMA accuses him of failing to properly reward medics for their vital work.
After eight strikes by the Conservatives and now three by Labour, the prospect of a solution looks as remote as at any point in the last 33 months. “At this rate, unless something changes, this will drag on for the next year. It will never end,” an NHS official said.
His comments reflect the beleaguered mood on a service that has once again been forced to cancel tens of thousands of appointments and operations, asked senior doctors to cover the shifts of more junior colleagues and pleaded with members of the public to only come to A&E within the next five days if absolutely necessary.
NHS ‘coping through’ during junior doctors’ strike but faces difficult recovery over Christmas, Streeting says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. health secretary, Wes StreetHe said he was concerned about how the NHS would recover in the days after the junior doctors’ strike, which started at 7am on Wednesday.
Junior doctors (the new name for junior doctors), who went on strike after members of the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected the government’s new offer, will return to work at 7am on Monday.
The BMA demanded a long-term plan to increase salaries and appropriately compensate for years of below-inflation increases, and called for the creation of new training places.
The government’s latest proposal will increase the number of training places enabling early-career doctors to begin training in their chosen medical specialty, but will not increase their salaries for the current financial year.
Streeting said the NHS, which was under intense pressure from the usual winter pressures, was “coping” during the strike, but admitted he was worried about the days ahead.
“The period that concerns me more is the post-strike period when we need to try to improve the service. This period now coincides with the NHS’s busiest period.” the health minister told the Observer.
On Friday Streeting said he wanted to end the dispute and “we will sit down with them again in the new year” but insisted he had a responsibility to all NHS staff.
“I don’t think doctors are selfish and don’t care about nurses and other healthcare workers, but the BMA’s attitude can be quite harsh and uncompromising,” he added. We will have more on this story and other political developments in the UK shortly.
