Sir Keir Starmer has been handed a bleak assessment by Andy Preston as he predicted the Prime Minister will not survive the year as he “cannot inject optimism”.
Speaking to GB News, the ex-Mayor of Middlesbrough declared Sir Keir is “doomed” and “will be gone” by the end of 2026.
Looking ahead to the New Year, the Prime Minister told Britons in his message: “In 2026, the choices we’ve made will mean more people will begin to feel positive change in your bills, your communities and your health service.
“But even more people will feel once again a sense of hope, a belief that things can and will get better, feel that the promise of renewal can become a reality, and my Government will make it that reality.”
Predicting Sir Keir’s 2026, Mr Preston told GB News: “It’s a tough year. New year is a great chance at a personal, a professional, at a political level, it’s a fresh start. So for leaders, it’s a golden opportunity to look forward and inject that optimism that we all crave.
“I don’t think Keir Starmer can do it, it almost doesn’t matter what he says. I can barely remember what he said, but he didn’t have that energy about him. He didn’t instil optimism, and that’s a personal problem. I think for him, it doesn’t look like he believes it.”
Admitting he “feels sorry” for the Prime Minister in his current position, Mr Preston added: “He’s in a very tough spot and I do feel sorry for him, because he almost cannot win whatever he does.
“Even if the economy does start to improve, I think it’s a long time before we all start to feel a bit better in our pockets. So Keir Starmer’s got a monstrous challenge, you need charisma, you need leadership, you need to be that figurehead. He doesn’t have that.
Andy Preston offered a bleak prediction for Keir Starmer’s leadership in 2026
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“So he’s doomed, he will be gone. I thought he’d be gone by now, I was wrong. But I do think he’s got just a few months in him. I think they will wait till the local elections because they will be disastrous – it’s a question of how much, but they will be.”
Asked by host Sam Francis if he believes things can “turn a corner” in 2026 in terms of the polling, Mr Preston disagreed: “Not at all, I think optimism is an astonishingly low level. People feel very negative, very pessimistic. They feel hostile, frustrated and angry everywhere, and it’s going to take a long time to fix that.
“And when things do get better economically, it takes time for people to feel that in their pockets and feel that psychologically, optimism is hard to instil. So whoever’s in power, whoever’s in has got a very tough job on their hands, and Keir Starmer is not the right man.”
Asked by host Dawn Neesom for his prediction for British politics in 2026, the ex-Mayor told GB News: “My prediction is Keir Starmer goes, absolutely. I thought he would got be gone by the end of 2025.
Keir Starmer promised Britons ‘positive change’ in his New Year’s message to the nation
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“And I have to confess, I did put a small £10 bet on that, which hasn’t worked. I’ve now officially lost 10 quid. I think most people feel that he will be gone, most people don’t think it’s certain, I think it’s almost certain he has to go.”
Criticising Labour’s reign so far, he continued: “Labour cannot improve. It’s like a football manager when the club is at the bottom of the league, three-quarters of the season have gone and your only chance now is to change leadership. You swap managers.”
Pressed by Dawn on who he would swap the Prime Minister for, Mr Preston responded: “I think that Andy Burnham is the popular choice at the moment, he doesn’t have a seat, but that’s easily doable.
“I think Clive Lewis came forward and offered his seat, which he really shouldn’t have done, that undermined Keir Starmer in early December. I think there would be plenty of people that would step forward and do that knowing they’d be compensated down the line by the Labour leader.”
Mr Preston told GB News that Keir Starmer is ‘not the right man’ to inject optimism into Britons
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GB NEWS
Questioned on his predictions for Reform UK and leader Nigel Farage in 2026, Mr Preston said they should feel “very comfortable” with where they currently are.
He concluded: “Truthfully, they are currently in the polls at about 28 per cent on average. I look at a range of polls, the average is about 28 per cent. Imagine they fell by 10 per cent, dropped to 25 and a half, 25 per cent. That would feel bad from 30 to 25.
“But if you look at that over a year, they would be delighted, wouldn’t they? So while it may feel like they’re declining somewhat, they and their supporters should be very comfortable where they are.
“The problem is, it’s that momentum, isn’t it. If it were to carry on, and when you fall, like with football, when you have a bad run, people start fighting, infighting, causing trouble behind the scenes, and that’s a very difficult job for a manager to handle. And the question is, if they dip down to 22 per cent and there’s infighting, is Nigel Farage the right man to manage that?”