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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher 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 our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

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

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to