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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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