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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to