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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit 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, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to