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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement 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 protect a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to