🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. 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 suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails 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 his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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