The chair of the Labour Party has insisted that Sir Keir Starmer will “absolutely” still be prime minister next Christmas, despite the party’s dire position in the polls.
Speaking to Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Anna Turley acknowledged that “things are still hard” for Britons, but struck an optimistic tone about the year ahead.
She said the government has “taken a lot of difficult decisions this year” to “stabilise the economy”, but we are now “starting to see that recovery”.
“As we go into the new year, I’m really optimistic about delivering the kind of change that people voted for last year, and to see them starting to see and feel it in their pockets and in their local communities,” Ms Turley insisted.
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On average over the last 10 polls, the Labour Party is down in third place on 18.2%, while Reform UK is on 29.4%, and the Conservative Party is on 18.9%.
Trevor then asked if the public simply hasn’t noticed “how lucky they’ve been”, and the senior minister said: “Well, I think rightly, people are impatient for change. We all are. And people voted for change – that was on the front of our manifesto last year.
“But it takes time to deliver that. It takes time to stabilise things from the chaos that we inherited.”
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She said fundamental changes, particularly those that require legislation, take time to deliver, pointing to the Employment Rights Bill, which only passed through parliament last week after the Lords repeatedly sought to amend it.
Ms Turley continued: “We live in the real world. We know things are still hard.
“But I’m conscious with every single day that goes by next year, people will really start to see and feel more money in their pockets, better public services when they’re looking for an appointment with a doctor, their streets and the neighbourhoods are looking better and better, and that change takes time.
“But we will be delivering that in the new year, and I’m confident people can really start to see that.”
Asked directly if Sir Keir Starmer will be Labour leader and prime minister by next Christmas, Turley replied: “Of course. Absolutely.
“As I said, people will really start to see and feel the change in their pockets. He has got a very clear vision for making sure that people can really deal with the cost of living, that public services will get back on their […] feet.
“And he’s building a Britain that is one that is tolerant, that is open, that is confident in itself. And that is really about renewal and investment in young people as opposed to the division and the decline of the opposition.”
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Her backing of the prime minister comes amid continued unease on the Labour benches about the party’s position in the polls, and the manoeuvrings of some big figures who are rumoured to be plotting a move against the prime minister if May’s local elections go badly.
One such person thought to be preparing for a potential leadership bid is the health secretary, Wes Streeting, who has told The Observer today that he is not ruling himself out as a candidate for the top job in future.
“I’m diplomatically ducking the question to avoid any more of the silly soap opera we’ve had in the last few months,” Streeting said, despite also noting the “pressure” and the “demands of that job”.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is repeatedly refusing to rule out a return to Westminster to challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership, and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is thought to be preparing to potentially launch a leadership bid of her own.
‘We’re going to smash the local elections’
Also on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the Conservative Party deputy chair, Matt Vickers, was bullish about his party’s prospects at May’s local elections.
“We’re going to go out there and smash these next elections,” he said.
“The reality is we had a tough general election. If anybody thought that we were going to dust ourselves off and be back in the game within months, then they’re a bit mad.”
