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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as 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 more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to