🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to