🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No government, 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 faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching 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 entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks 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 going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to