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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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 just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – 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 facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former 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 asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to