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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, 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 admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to