🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to