🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. 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 implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, 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 desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to