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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on 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 stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

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

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to