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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk 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 "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect 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 more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to