🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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