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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" 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 "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to