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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, 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 – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk 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 his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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