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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps 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 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 scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

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

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as 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 it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to