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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points 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 struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to