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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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