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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to