UK’s Starmer says ousting him would lead to chaos, far-right government

Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned his governing Labour Party that removing him in 2026 would plunge Britain into “utter chaos” and open the door to a far-right government.

The turmoil wrought by the constant chopping and changing of personnel under the previous Conservative administration is “amongst the reasons that the Tories were booted out so effectively at the last election,” Starmer told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Any repeat of that instability “would gift Nigel Farage,” Starmer said, referring to the populist right-wing Reform UK leader who currently tops opinion polls and is seen as Labour’s main rival at the next general election, due by 2029 at the latest.

“We know from that evidence what happens if you go down that chaotic path, and I’m not going to take us back to that kind of chaos,” the prime minister said.

Starmer was speaking in a long-form interview with the national broadcaster designed to set out a clearer narrative about his government’s domestic achievements, following criticism from his own lawmakers that he has failed to define the purpose of his premiership since winning power a year and a half ago.

He has the worst satisfaction rating of any prime minister of the past half century, polling even worse than market-roiling former Tory leader Liz Truss. Labour’s approval ratings have halved since their July 2024 election landslide victory, with Farage’s Reform winning support off the back of the government’s inability to kick-start the economy or reduce the flow of illegal migrants into the country.