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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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