🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk 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 a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to