🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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