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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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