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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to