Starmer Urges Ministers To Hold Their Nerve Amid Poll Decline

Keir Starmer has told ministers to “hold their nerve” even after Labour faced a nosedive in the opinion polls.

The prime minister held his first political cabinet – meaning deputy party leader Lucy Powell could attend – of the year and tried to lift their spirits following a difficult 2025.

Hours after a new YouGov poll put Labour in third place behind Reform and the Tories, Starmer insisted that the government is facing “the fight of our political lives”.

According to a readout, he said: “A Labour government renewing the country or a Reform movement that feeds on grievance, decline and division.

“They want a weaker state, they want to inject bile into our communities, they want to appease Putin. This is the fight of our political lives and one that we must relish.

“I do not underestimate the scale of the task. But I have no doubt about this team. Governments do not lose because polls go down. They lose when they lose belief or nerve. We will do neither.”

Powell also addressed the meeting, thanking ministers for “embracing me as deputy leader” and saying she relished “helping to tell the story of whose side we are on”.

Powell served as Starmer’s Commons leader before she was booted out of the job in a September reshuffle.

During the regular cabinet meeting, the prime minister also told ministers that the cost of living will “remain our focus” regardless of what happens around the world.

He said the government would be judged at the next general election on whether the public “feel better off”, adding: “That will require hard work, focus and determination from all of us. Together, as a team, we will rise to that challenge and deliver for the whole country.”

It comes after Starmer tried to scare off potential rivals who might consider challenging his leadership over the weekend.

He told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg ousting him would send the country into “chaos”, comparable to the last Tory government.

He said: “Nobody wants to go back to that. It’s not in our national interest.”

He also claimed the upcoming May elections are not a “referendum” on his leadership.