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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

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

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after 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 system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to