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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, 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 not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 outcry when statements he'd previously made – including 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 evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to