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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk 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 notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to