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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects 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 elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to