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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

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

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

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

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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 "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk 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 thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to