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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close 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 qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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