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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to