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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said 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 time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to