🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although 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 step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer 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 evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to