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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication 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 a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to