🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, 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 just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "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 evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to