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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – 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 more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices 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 easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to