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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across 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.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action 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 content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to