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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping 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 intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to