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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge 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 sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede 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 resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to