🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would remove 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 change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

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

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to