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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted 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.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, 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 talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including 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 not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to