🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point 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 offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including 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 after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify 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.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to