We are in the pre-Christmas dog days and politics has, finally, slowed down a bit. Reflecting on 2025, here are my top 12 key moments which tell us the most about where we are in politics and how things might pan out in 2026. Keir Starmer had a decent start to the year, while Nigel Farage ‘won’ from May to September. The final quarter saw the emergence of Kemi Badenoch and Zack Polanski:

Starmer produces letter from the King inviting Donald Trump on his second state visit, 27 February

This might have been the high point of the Prime Minister’s year. He and then foreign secretary David Lammy worked out that Trump was likely to win the presidential election a year earlier and got alongside his team. Playing the royal card in the Oval Office was a masterstroke and set up a much warmer than expected relationship between Trump and Starmer, which led to lower tariffs than the EU and a tech deal worth $150 billion of investment over the next decade. It’s been a bumpy ride but it’s one of the few clear political wins of the year.

Reform wins the local elections, 1 May

The proof that Nigel Farage’s insurgents, who had led the polls since the turn of the year, are a serious proposition. They grabbed ten councils and 677 seats and have set themselves up for the most pivotal off-year elections in a generation next May, when Reform hope to win in Wales, establish a major foothold in Scotland and wipe out the Tories in England. While Reform remains out front, two omens concern some. In........

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