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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge 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, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to