🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, 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.

True – up to a point. 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 resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back 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 – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" 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 progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to