🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

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

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to