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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need 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 problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to