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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle 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 throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation 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 attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of 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 done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to