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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, 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 something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across 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.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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 – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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