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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale 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 safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir 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 clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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