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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to