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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, 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 considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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