🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes 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 thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to