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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, 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 after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to