🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added 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 combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – 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 fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment 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