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.”