🔗 Share this article

"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for 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 previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture 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 clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to