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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to