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"I will remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, 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, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move 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