🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. 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 a long period, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to