🔗 Share this article

"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso 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 stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back 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 – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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