🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever 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 attempting to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, 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 be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as 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 it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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