🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself 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 as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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