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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea 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 term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much 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.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected 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 undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke 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 please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to