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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, 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 held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to