🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching 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 gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to