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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" 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 progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to