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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 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 "the system" for failing to identify 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 takes on a new complication 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 many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to