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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action 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 these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to