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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge 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.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to