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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify 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 unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to