🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, 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 not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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