🔗 Share this article

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument 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 while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – 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 facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for 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 always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to