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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge 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 governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. 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 ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to