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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major 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.

Accurate – in part. But even though 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 one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to