🔗 Share this article

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "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 perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to