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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed 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