🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back 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 attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to