🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge 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 sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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 problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to