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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although 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 situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar 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 unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to