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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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