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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to