🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer 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 facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to