🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

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

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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