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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move 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