🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

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 concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always 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 firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to