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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk 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 thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to