🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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