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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to