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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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