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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

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

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral 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.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to