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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

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

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear 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 thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to