🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, 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 admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to