🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge 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 walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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