🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to