🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred 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 interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before 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 consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to