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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close 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 normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to