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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year 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 struggle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" 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.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to