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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged 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, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to