🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive 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 guard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to