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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

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

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

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

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal 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 considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before 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 always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to