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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

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 attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want 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, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

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 PM 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to