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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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