🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted 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.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to concede 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, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 made in the past – 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 not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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