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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

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