🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

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

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to