🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs 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 public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. 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 outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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