Before the election, Keir Starmer said he was determined to ensure that he didn’t let being prime minister deny him time with his family and made a kind of promise to his wife and two children that Friday nights would be sacrosanct. When we meet him at No 10, we wonder how that is working out. “In some respects, that’s a little bit easier because it’s a 30 seconds commute,” he says, pointing upwards to the living quarters. “The kids can pop in when they get back from school, even if it’s only for a few minutes before they go up to the flat.”
On the other hand, the schedule since Labour took office has been “relentless”. Getting the government going on its domestic agenda has been accompanied by a packed calendar of foreign travel, including a Washington summit, a Nato summit, visits to Italy and Ireland, and two trips to “reset the relationship with key partners” to France and Germany. “Making time is important, because you’re a better decision-maker if you have a bit of time with your family.” He speaks with regret about cancelling his summer holiday after the August outbreak of far-right violence on the streets. “It would have been good to have got away over the summer for a break, if I’m honest, because we’ve been running at this for a long time. Whilst the campaign itself was six and a bit weeks, the truth is we’ve been in campaign mode since at least the turn of the year. I haven’t had a day off since Rishi stood out there in the rain without his umbrella. I also know that this is not a good thing. Everybody, including politicians, needs to get away from time to time to have holidays.”
