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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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