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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to