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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to