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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to