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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before 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 a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "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 alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to