🔗 Share this article

"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe 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.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to