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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising 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 friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

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

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to