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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso 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 revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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