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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove 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 replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge 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 one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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