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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement 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 combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to