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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to