Of course Starmer will be PM next Christmas, Labour party chair insists<\/p>\n
Anna Turley said that Keir Starmer will \u201cabsolutely\u201d be the prime minister next Christmas, when asked by Trevor Phillips, amid continued speculation that Labour<\/a> figures are manoeuvring to replace him.<\/p>\n Turley told Sky News:<\/p>\n Of course. Absolutely. As I said, people will really start to see and feel the change in their pockets. <\/p>\n Keirs 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. <\/p>\n And he\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve sat around that cabinet table and there\u2019s a team there that are ruthlessly focused on delivering on a day to day basis, whether it\u2019s the NHS, whether it\u2019s education, whether it\u2019s defence, whether it\u2019s housing. <\/p>\n This is a team behind that is determined to deliver on the promises that we made last year and to support a prime minister that\u2019s got a clear vision for a renewal of this country.<\/p>\n Starmer, who is deeply unpopular with the public despite his landslide victory last summer, is approaching a perilous moment at next year\u2019s May elections when Labour is expected to face a disastrous set of results across the country.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n The House of Commons has spent more than \u00a320m on refurbishment and improvement works since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, according to the SNP.<\/p>\n Figures obtained by the party under a freedom of information request showed a total of \u00a320,107,400 has been spent on the estate since the 2014 referendum.<\/p>\n The SNP said the 2024\/25 figures were the highest on record at \u00a32.5m, which it equated to 74 nurse salaries in Scotland.<\/p>\n SNP MP Brendan O\u2019Hara said:<\/p>\n This damning data reveals the true cost of Westminster \u2013 a system where, in the midst of a UK government-induced cost-of-living crisis, taxpayers must foot the bill for millions of pounds of refurbishments each year \u2026<\/p>\n If Westminster has splashed \u00a320m on refurbishment costs alone since the independence referendum, just think of the money drained by the broken system overall since 2014 \u2013 it\u2019s clear that Scotland can, and will, do better with the right to decide our own future, delivering a fresh start with independence.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>\u2018It feels like being suffocated\u2019: Palestine Action activist in HMP Peterborough vows to continue hunger strike<\/p>\n In other news, there are fears that the lives of the Palestine Action-affiliated remand prisoners now on hunger strike<\/a> are at growing risk.<\/p>\n The demands of the prisoners include immediate bail, ending the ban on Palestine Action<\/a> and stopping restrictions on their communications.<\/p>\n Teuta Hoxha, 29, at HMP Peterborough, is among those currently on hunger strike (she is on day 43, as of Sunday). The Guardian\u2019s legal affairs correspondent, Haroon Sadique, has asked her questions through an intermediary<\/a>, as pressure mounts on the justice secretary, David Lammy, to meet the prisoners\u2019 lawyers who warned there is an increasingly likely potential that their clients would die as a result of their protest.<\/p>\n Teuta Hoxha, 29, at HMP Peterborough, one of six Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners currently on hunger strike. Photograph: Martin Pope\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Hoxha acknowledged the potential consequences of what she is doing. \u201cYou get to the stage where you\u2019re constantly reminded of the big and irreversible changes that happen with prolonged starvation. It is something that plays on the mind,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n She cited the possibility of blindness, organ failure and brain damage: \u201cBasically everything that brings you autonomy and has given us the ability to go on hunger strike, we\u2019re at risk of losing that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the times it feels like you\u2019re being suffocated. Lots of things change about you, the condition of your skin, you start to turn grey, both in terms of the hue of your skin but also you notice more grey hairs, everything manifests physically,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are days where it feels very, very heavy on the mind and on the shoulders. But from my end, and I think for my comrades, we remain strong mentally and determined.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Tory deputy chair Matt Vickers was asked by Sky News\u2019 Trevor Phillips about the councils that have said they will request a delay to elections next year (see post at 09.59<\/a> for more details).<\/p>\n He said:<\/p>\n Most Conservative councils have said no \u2026 In fact, we voted against the legislation that was being brought forward to move these things.<\/p>\n Some of these people are going to see a delay of two years in their elections, like the five-year term, a seven-year term, even for a councillor.<\/p>\n That\u2019s wrong. That is democracy denied. It\u2019s the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.05 EST<\/p>\n Vickers was asked this morning about doing a pact with Reform days after his boss, the Conservative party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, told the Telegraph<\/a> he would agree to form a coalition government with Nigel Farage\u2019s party \u201cif there was no other choice\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked if he would prefer an alliance with Reform or the Lib Dems, he said: \u201cOf course I would choose Reform. We are the only parties who believe in controlling our borders.\u201d<\/p>\n During a debate on the Daily T podcast, Hollinrake added: \u201cI am no Lib Dem and Kemi Badenoch is no Lib Dem.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that was my only choice, of course I would choose Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin Hollinrake speaks during the Conservative party conference in Manchester in October. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PA<\/p>\n According to a report in the FT earlier this month<\/a>, Farage told donors he expected a deal or merger between his Reform UK party and the Conservatives before the next general election (Farage later denied the report but said he would like to in effect absorb the Conseravtive party by winning over defectors and replacing it). Badenoch, for her part, has poured cold water on the idea of a national electoral pact or merger between the Tories and Reform.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Tories will ‘smash’ upcoming local elections and don’t need to do a pact with Reform, deputy chair says<\/p>\n The Tory deputy chair, Matt Vickers, was also interviewed by Sky News\u2019 Trevor Phillips this morning. Phillips asked him if the Conservatives have had talks with Reform about a possible electoral pact.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. We\u2019re going to go out there and smash these next elections,\u201d Vickers, who is also the shadow policing minister, confidently responded.<\/p>\n The Stockton West MP said that the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has been doing the \u201chomework\u201d and listening to what voters have had to say since the general election last year.<\/p>\n Vickers said:<\/p>\n There\u2019s actually a big dividing ground out there. The big division between us and the other parties is that we\u2019re the party on the side of working people.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not going to go around nationalising everything that moves. We\u2019re not going to tax them to death.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not going to give away benefits, limitless levels of benefits. We\u2019re not going to remove that two-child cap like reform, like Labour. We\u2019re here for working people who are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n While overall Tory poll ratings remain stubbornly low, Badenoch has been praised by some of her MPs, along with some commentators, for her recent Commons performances \u2013 although whether the public has even noticed remains unclear.<\/p>\n Shadow policing minister Matt Vickers appearing on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips. Photograph: Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips\/Sky News\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.57 EST<\/p>\n In an interview with The Observer newspaper this weekend, the health secretary, Wes Streeting<\/a>, insisted Starmer has his \u201cabsolute support\u201d.<\/p>\n He was forced to deny in November<\/a> that he planned to unseat the prime minister, after a briefing war at the heart of government. Streeting at the time condemned \u201cself-defeating\u201d attacks on him coming from Downing Street and said they were indicative of a toxic culture inside No 10.<\/p>\n In his Observer interview, he also shrugged off suggestions of a joint leadership ticket with Angela Rayner, the former housing secretary and deputy prime minister, and told the newspaper:<\/p>\n The closer I see that job and the pressure on Keir and the demands of that job, the more I wonder why anyone would want it.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Of course Starmer will be PM next Christmas, Labour party chair insists<\/p>\n Anna Turley said that Keir Starmer will \u201cabsolutely\u201d be the prime minister next Christmas, when asked by Trevor Phillips, amid continued speculation that Labour<\/a> figures are manoeuvring to replace him.<\/p>\n Turley told Sky News:<\/p>\n Of course. Absolutely. As I said, people will really start to see and feel the change in their pockets. <\/p>\n Keirs 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. <\/p>\n And he\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve sat around that cabinet table and there\u2019s a team there that are ruthlessly focused on delivering on a day to day basis, whether it\u2019s the NHS, whether it\u2019s education, whether it\u2019s defence, whether it\u2019s housing. <\/p>\n This is a team behind that is determined to deliver on the promises that we made last year and to support a prime minister that\u2019s got a clear vision for a renewal of this country.<\/p>\n Starmer, who is deeply unpopular with the public despite his landslide victory last summer, is approaching a perilous moment at next year\u2019s May elections when Labour is expected to face a disastrous set of results across the country.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Sixty-three council areas could opt to postpone elections<\/a> until 2027 after some were already delayed until May 2026 as two-tier authorities are being combined into single unitary councils.<\/p>\n The Electoral Commission has raised concerns about the prospect of more delays to council elections in England, saying capacity constraints are not a legitimate reason to postpone long-planned polls.<\/p>\n Polls in several council areas were cancelled this year, in East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex and Thurrock, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.<\/p>\n Anna Turley told Sky News that the government is undertaking the biggest change in local government in 50 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a huge programme of local government reform, and it\u2019s right that we do it sensibly and calmly, and that takes time to deliver,\u201d the Labour<\/a> party chair said, confirming there is no \u201cchange to a plan\u201d for a general election, which must be held by 15 August 2029.<\/p>\n The Labour party chair, Anna Turley. Photograph: Thomas Krych\/Zuma\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.04 EST<\/p>\n Trevor Phillips points to Labour\u2019s dire poll numbers (Reform is consistently the top party and Labour<\/a> seems to be shedding votes to the Green party to its left, which is gaining momentum under its leader Zack Polanski).<\/p>\n Turley said people are \u201crightly\u201d impatient for change but insisted it takes time for the government to deliver this.<\/p>\n She points to the employment rights bill, which finally become law at the end of last week, 18 months on from Labour\u2019s landslide election victory.<\/p>\n The bill, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, will give workers access to sick pay and paternity leave from the first day they start their job and includes extra safeguards for pregnant women and new mothers.<\/p>\n As my colleague Jessica Elgot notes in this story<\/a>, the struggle to pass the law, which faced significant opposition from the Conservatives and business groups, meant the government made a number of concessions to secure its passage.<\/p>\n Trade unions agreed earlier this month to remove day-one rights to unfair dismissal from the package of reforms, in return for the lifting of the compensation cap, to get the bill through parliament in time to start implementing new rights from April.<\/p>\n Turley said Labour has delivered five million extra NHS<\/a> appointments in its first year in government but admitted that public services have been on \u201ctheir knees\u201d so tangible change will take time to filter down to the members of the public.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year, [people] will really start to see and feel more money in their pockets, better public services when they\u2019re looking for an appointment with the doctor, the streets and the neighbourhoods looking better and better. And that change takes time,\u201d Turley said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.48 EST<\/p>\n We have some comments given by the Labour<\/a> party chair Anna Turley to Sky News\u2019 Trevor Phillips this morning. He asked her if Keir Starmer is incapable of taking \u201ctough decisions until it\u2019s too late\u201d, something the prime minister said to Boris Johnson in 2020.<\/p>\n Turley defended the government\u2019s record, saying it has \u201cstabilised\u201d the economy after \u201cinheriting an absolute wreck\u201d from the previous Conservative administration.<\/p>\n Turley also pointed to giving wider access to free school meals in England.<\/p>\n The government announced expanded FSM eligibility from September 2026<\/a>, allowing all children from households receiving universal credit benefits to receive free lunches. Currently those with a net earned household income of below \u00a37,400 a year are eligible.<\/p>\n But the expansion of free school meals will initially benefit far fewer children in England than claimed, according to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.34 EST<\/p>\n In this analysis piece<\/a>, the Guardian\u2019s health policy editor, Denis Campbell, looks at the history of these strikes and considers how likely it is for a settlement to be reached after the 14th walkout by resident doctors in a long-running pay dispute. Here is an extract:<\/p>\n Streeting says the British Medical Association is being unreasonable; the BMA, the doctors union, blames him for not rewarding medics properly<\/a> for their vital work.<\/p>\n After eight strikes under the Tories and now three under Labour, the prospects of a settlement look as distant as at any point in the last 33 months. \u201cAt this rate, this is going to drag on and on and on all next year unless something changes. It\u2019s never-ending,\u201d said one NHS official. <\/p>\n His comments reflect the beleaguered mood in a service that yet again has had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments and operations, ask senior doctors to cover more junior colleagues\u2019 shifts and plead with the public to come to A&E over the next five days only if absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n Resident doctors on their picket line at Guys & St Thomas’ hospital in Westminster on 17 December 2025. Photograph: Guy Smallman\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a>NHS ‘coping’ during resident doctors’ strike but faces difficult recovery over Christmas, Streeting says<\/p>\n Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he is worried about how the NHS will recover in the days after the resident doctors\u2019 strike, which began at 7am on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Resident doctors (the new name for junior doctors) will return to work at 7am on Monday, having gone on strike after members of the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a fresh offer from the government.<\/p>\n The BMA asked for a long-term plan to increase pay and properly compensate for years of below-inflation rises, and wanted new training places to be created.<\/p>\n The latest offer from the government would have increased the number of training places to enable early career doctors to start training in their chosen medical speciality, but not increased their pay for the current financial year.<\/p>\n Wes Streeting speaking to the media at Wellington House, London, on the first day of the strike. Photograph: Lucy North\/PA Media<\/p>\n Streeting said the NHS<\/a>, which is under intense strain due to the usual winter pressures, \u201cis coping\u201d during the strike, but admitted he was concerned about the coming days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe period that worries me more is the post-strike period when we have to try and recover the service. That now falls at a time of year which is the NHS\u2019s busiest,\u201d the health secretary told the Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, Streeting said he wanted to end the dispute and that \u201cwe will get around the table with them again in the new year\u201d, but insisted he has a responsibility to all NHS staff.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that doctors are selfish and don\u2019t care about nurses and other healthcare professionals, but the BMA\u2019s position can be quite hardline and uncompromising,\u201d he added. We will have more on this story, and other political developments in the UK, shortly.<\/p>\n