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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's 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 work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, 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 – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to