Political Cabinet Readout - Tuesday 6 January

The Prime Minister told Political Cabinet the Government should “keep a relentless focus on the cost of living, show relentless delivery of change people can feel and bring relentless clarity to drawing the choice ahead”.

Setting out the choice, 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.”

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Lucy Powell thanked the Prime Minister for setting the political challenge for 2026. She thanked him and his team for “embracing me as Deputy Leader” and said that she relished “helping to tell the story of whose side we are on”.

There was then a political discussion centring on the lessons from successful recoveries of centre left parties in Norway, Australia and Canada through focussing on delivery and cost of living issues.