🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to