🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues 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 electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 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 more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices 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