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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to 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