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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to