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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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