🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship 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 many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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