🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted 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 stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to