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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to