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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

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 past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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