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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

True – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification 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 revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" 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 unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to