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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But 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 no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including 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 past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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