🔗 Share this article

"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

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

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" 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 perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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