🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" 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 dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to