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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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