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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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