🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

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

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to