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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating 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 be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, 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 "pleased" 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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