🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment 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