🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about 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 concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

International Law and Brexit

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

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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