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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take 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 change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility 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 provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to