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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

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 protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to