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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

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. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" 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 dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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