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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease 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 do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to