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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to