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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to