🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

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

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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