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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to