🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to