Sir Keir Starmer has warned rivals inside Labour not to move against him, saying that would “gift” Nigel Farage the next general election, as speculation over his future mounts.
The Labour leader also insisted he will still be prime minister next year despite fears his party is on course to suffer huge losses at elections across the UK in May.
In an interview designed to draw a line under a difficult 2025, he said frequent leadership changes were not in the “national interest” amid speculation that some senior Labour figures – including health secretary Wes Streeting and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham – are considering bids to replace him.
In his first interview of 2026, with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour leader dismissed the speculation and said he would still be PM this time next year.
“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.
He added: “I intend to lead us into that fight. What I don’t think will help us is if a Labour government turns back to the chaos of the last Tory government. That would gift Nigel Farage (the election).”
In an attack on Mr Farage’s brand of populist politics, Sir Keir said that being “diverse ... that is the essence of Britishness”, but warned that would be challenged at the next election.
But with his beleaguered party still a long way behind Mr Farage’s Reform UK in the polls, he will tell his cabinet on Tuesday to slash the cost of living as he tries to win back disgruntled voters.
Labour faces potentially disastrous results in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections in May.
At the end of October, leading polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice said the loss of the traditionally Labour seat of Caerphilly in a by-election showed the party is “in severe trouble in Wales”. There have been similar warnings over the elections to Holyrood and councils across England.
Sir Keir’s interview followed his new year message, in which he acknowledged life is still “harder than it should be” for many Britons but promised more people will begin to feel “a sense of hope” in the coming months.
The prime minister warned that “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.”
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