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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to