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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to