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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of 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 – resurfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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