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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits 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 about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to