🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive 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 protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to