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‘It is a depressing task to reel back over the numerous policy disasters, the U-turns, the resignations, the communications chaos, the complete absence of any identifiable strategic direction, that have dogged the Labour government over the course of 2025. But it is instructive that many negative signals suggesting it would go this way had been there even before the year started.’
Any seasoned politician will tell you that political weather can change fast. But at the end of 2025 it is hard for even the most optimistic and open-minded of Labour MPs to see anything but more dark and difficult days ahead. 2025 has been a year of unremitting, largely self-inflicted Labour collapse in public esteem which does not inspire faith that Keir Starmer and his team have the wherewithal to recover. Incredibly, less than a year and a half after winning a landslide election victory, those same Labour MPs face a terrible New Year dilemma. Stick or twist?
The aftermath of the local elections in May 2026 will be their decision time. The thinking and plotting is already underway. Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner? Would any of them, or indeed anyone else, offer anything better? The alternative to admitting that this Prime Minister is no good and making a change however, may still be their least worst option: just soldier on with Starmer, hoping against hope that something will turn in his favour...

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