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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, 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 – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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 after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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