🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, 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 a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate 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 leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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