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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want 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 a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to