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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

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 throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to