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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken 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 calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues 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 following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to