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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to