🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview 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 downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to