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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to