🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about 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 stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to