Make or break for Keir and Kemi...but can Farage deliver?

THIS is a make-or-break year for the leaders of Britain's two traditional parties of power and one of the most important yet for Nigel Farage.

- BY DAVID WILLIAMSON

Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch each need to convince their MPs they are the right person to lead them into the next general election.

Mrs Badenoch starts the year with the wind at her back. She rebooted her leadership at the Conservative conference with her pledge to abolish stamp duty and has soundly found her feet at Prime Minister's Questions as a ferocious critic of Labour.

Her scathing response to Rachel Reeves's tax-raising Budget won respect and, at last, polling puts the Tories just above Labour. But it is not enough to be almost level-pegging with a disastrously unpopular government led by a PM and Chancellor who have alienated and angered the public.

Mrs Badenoch needs to show she can lead the Conservatives into power in the 2029 election. Tories don't want a Neil Kinnock figure who can take them to a magnificent defeat they need a brilliant communicator and first-rate strategist who can stamp out the threat from Reform and send Labour back into opposition.

The key test comes in May when voters will elect new councillors and the members of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.