British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has dismissed concerns about his leadership and said that he will be Prime Minister again at this time next year.
In an interview with the BBC, he expressed confidence that the upcoming elections in Scotland, Wales and England in May are not a "referendum" for his government.
His words come after a difficult 2025 for Starmer, who has struggled with slowing economic growth, low poll approval ratings and speculation he could face a leadership challenge.
In his recent New Year's address, the prime minister promised to "overcome the decline and division offered by others" and insisted that in 2026 people would experience "positive change" in his life.
He stressed: "I was elected in 2024 with a five-year mandate to change the country and that is what I intend to do, to be true to that mandate".
"I know that I will be judged when we get to the next election on whether I have delivered on the key things that matter most to people".
Parliament returns from the Christmas recess tomorrow, and the prime minister will hold his first cabinet meeting of 2026 the following day.
He is expected to tell ministers: "I know that families across the country are still worried about the cost of living. There will be no let-up in our fight to improve their lives."
In his BBC interview, the prime minister promised to stand firm as leader.
"Under the last government we saw constant cuts and changes in leadership, in teams, it caused complete chaos and was one of the reasons the Tories were so effectively ousted in the last election," Starmer noted.
"Nobody wants to go back to that. It's not in our national interest. We know from this evidence what happens if you go down this chaotic path and I will not take us back to that chaos." "I will be in this position until 2027 and if this long interview works we can try it again in January next year." Starmer made his statement just over five months before elections to the Welsh Parliament - the Senedd, the Scottish Parliament and many local authorities in England on May 7. Either of these would have huge implications, as Labour currently holds power in the Senedd and runs many of the city councils in England where local elections are held. The government has been hit by a series of embarrassing situations in the run-up to Christmas, including briefings on a plot to take over from Health Secretary Wes Streeting in early November. Streeting said at the time that suggestions from Starmer's allies that he was trying to challenge the leadership were "self-defeating nonsense".
This episode was quickly followed by a pre-Budget U-turn on whether to raise income tax rates, and then the unprecedented premature publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility's response to Rachel Reeves's Budget Responsibility report before she had delivered it in the House of Commons.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer "expects gratitude" when "we know his decisions have made the cost of living worse".
"Labour has no plan to fix Britain and working families are paying the price," she said.