🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to