🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much 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, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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