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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to