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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to