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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted 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 full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year 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 – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

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

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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