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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – 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 walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly 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 difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails 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 many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to