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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to