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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" 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 friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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