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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing desire 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 plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

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