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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to