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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to