🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. 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 implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer 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 dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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