🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had transpired 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 considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

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 protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "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 evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to