🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges 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 told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former 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 told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to