🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to