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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant 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 resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to