🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although 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 circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to