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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some 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.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit 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 walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "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 evident political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to