🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner 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 "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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