🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though 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 scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to