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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to