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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across 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 about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale 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 guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident 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 ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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