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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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