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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

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

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable 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 ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to