🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, 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 new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to