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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to