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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly 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 hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for 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 next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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