🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some 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 sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to