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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially 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 hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to