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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break 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 decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to