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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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