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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried 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.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to