🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, 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 statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo 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