Keir Starmer is trying to start 2026 by promising that Britain is finally about to “turn a corner,” telling voters this should be the year when talk of national renewal turns into something they can actually feel when they open a bill. On a New Year visit to a community centre in Reading, he pointed to a freeze on rail fares “for the first time in 30 years,” a £150 cut to energy bills and expanded free childcare as the kinds of changes that might make that promise real.
The timing is awkward: his government is dealing with falling poll numbers and the aftershocks of a U.S. operation that seized Nicolás Maduro, even as he says his focus is still the cost of living. Starmer keeps insisting he will see out his five‑year term and “beat decline and division,” but he is also talking more about delivery—showing voters what has already been done—than about new big‑ticket promises.
On Venezuela, he is treading carefully, stressing that Britain was “not involved in any way” in the strikes and special‑forces operation and that the priority is keeping about 500 British nationals in the country safe. Asked whether the U.S. raid broke international law, he has refused to give a verdict until he speaks to Donald Trump and other allies and has “all the facts,” a stance that has already drawn criticism from opposition MPs who want a clearer line.
Back in Westminster, MPs are returning to more familiar business: a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill in the Commons, sentencing reforms in the Lords aimed partly at easing the prison‑capacity crisis, and a long, grinding debate over legalising assisted dying through the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. For a sense of how full the agenda is, the Hansard Society’s Parliament Matters bulletin, What’s coming up in Parliament this week? 5–9 January 2026, walks through everything from Magnitsky‑style sanctions debates to another day spent on the Post Office Horizon scandal in committee rooms