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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" 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 – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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