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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 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 courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to