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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to