🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to