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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand 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 our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight 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 mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" 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 perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to