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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although 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 circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, 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 prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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