🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to