🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to