🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, 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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to