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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral 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 battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

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 across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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