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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, 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 even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to