🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem 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 sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer 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 unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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