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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect 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 renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to