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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to