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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires 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 thought he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to