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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest 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 difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue 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 tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks 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 it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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