Keir Starmer is heading for a very unhappy new year. Because he knows 2026 could be when he leaves 10 Downing Street for good. A new poll found he is regarded as the worst Labour Prime Minister ever. And this was a survey of people who actually voted Labour at the last election. Meanwhile, cabinet colleagues are pleading with Labour MPs to get behind the leadership.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said in an interview: “The British people will never forgive us if we fall inwards on each other rather than focusing on the crisis that is facing them out there on the streets.” That’s Mr Reed doing his loyal best to support the Prime Minister. But he’s only saying it because he knows that Sir Keir is in real trouble.

Labour backbenchers just don’t believe that Keir Starmer can win another election victory. They think their best chance of holding on to their seats is to remove him.

And they don’t like him.

The Prime Minister keeps on introducing unpopular policies, which most of his MPs loyally support – such as cutting winter fuel payments, limiting access to disability benefits and landing family farms with massive inheritance tax bills. Then he performs a u-turn and scraps or massively waters down the proposal, making everyone who defended it look stupid.

You can understand why backbenchers have had enough, and why potential replacements for Sir Keir, such as Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner or Wes Streeting, are on manoeuvres.

Labour MPs are understandably worried by opinion polls that show them not just second, behind Reform, but often in third place, behind the Tories. Some surveys even show their party could be headed for fourth place in terms of voter support, with the Greens threatening to overtake them.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch repeatedly humiliated the Prime Minister in Prime Minister’s Questions towards the end of 2025. She’s got the measure of him.

But it will be elections in May that determine whether Labour MPs really start to panic. Their party could take a battering in Wales and Scotland, and suffer losses in English councils.

Sir Keir faces an uncertain future but could cause enormous damage to this country before he goes.

First, his government is pressing ahead with dangerous policies that threaten our freedoms, such as limiting the right to a trial by jury and introducing compulsory digital identity cards.

Second, Sir Keir is determined to protect his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, even though she has repeatedly shown that she is not up to the job. She says she wants to grow the economy but has repeatedly imposed extra taxes and red tape on businesses. It seems she doesn’t understand that a strong economy needs successful employers, and the result is low growth, inflation and rising numbers out of work.

Finally, Sir Keir has abandoned any attempt to pretend he supports Brexit. In his desperation to stem the flow of support from Labour to the Lib Dems and the Greens, he is committing himself to ever-closer union with Brussels and giving up the UK’s hard-won independence.

It’s been said that every political career ends in failure, but it usually takes longer than this. It’s almost hard to believe that Keir Starmer won a landslide election victory less than 18 months ago.

His stint as Prime Minister appears to be heading towards an end. The danger is that Sir Keir takes the country down with him before he goes.