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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to