🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems 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 admitted 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires 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 thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to