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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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