🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time 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 offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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