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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue 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, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider 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.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to