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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want 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 resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy 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 not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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