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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although 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 more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to