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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, 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, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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