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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to