🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps 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.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to