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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one 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 replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across 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 – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to