🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir 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 facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to