🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated 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 struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 after an controversy 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 system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into 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