🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to