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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue 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 attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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