🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to