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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought 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 – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk 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 a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to