🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to