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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, 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 although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance 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 many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to