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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely 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 combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 – surfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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