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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to