🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to