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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant 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 resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to