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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to