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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to