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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely 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 integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash 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 it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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