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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed 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 potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action 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 thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

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

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to