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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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