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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big 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 finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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