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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit 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 step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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