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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning 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 held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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