Labour needs to forgive its leader for his tentative start

At the end of a troubled year for the prime minister, even his own party is discussing his suitability, reports Andrew Grice - but if it wants a second term, it will have to get behind him

- Andrew Grice

At a pre-Christmas social event, senior Labour figures including ministers - found themselves discussing this question: will Keir Starmer be a one-term prime minister?

It was remarkable in two senses: not just because Starmer won a majority of 174 less than six months ago, but also because the premise of the question was not Labour losing the next election, but that Starmer – who will be 66 come spring 2029 – will have had enough by then. So much for his desired “decade of renewal”...

That the prospect is even being discussed reflects his government’s troubled start. As he approaches the new year, Starmer will find it hard not to ponder what has gone wrong.

I’m afraid I don’t buy his “je ne regrette rien” statement to the liaison committee of senior MPs. Asked if he would have done anything differently knowing what he knows now, he replied “No” in an effort to avoid headlines about admitting mistakes – of which there were several. Labour was woefully unprepared for government.

Starmer entrusted his then chief of staff Sue Gray with too much power. “If there was a plan for government, it existed only in Sue Gray’s head,” one Starmer ally told me ruefully. Gray departed after an internal power struggle – which, along with a controversy over freebies that Labour was slow to close down, derailed the government.