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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would remove 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 switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

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 contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to