🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major 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 about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, 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, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" 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 gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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