🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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 this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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