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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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