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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date 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 peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir'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 prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to