🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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 such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to