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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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 supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments 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 held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners 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 this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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 calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to