🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

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

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to