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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody 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 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails 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 many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to